CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2023-7235 — Openvpn Openvpn Gui security vulnerability

High CVSS 8.4

The OpenVPN GUI installer before version 2.6.9 did not set the proper access control restrictions to the installation directory of OpenVPN binaries when using a non-standard installation path, which allows an attacker to replace binaries to run arbitrary executables.

Severity
High
CVSS
8.4 (3.1)
Published
2024-02-21
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-276

Affected products

  • openvpn / openvpn_gui

Matched remediation archetype

Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map service accounts, operating-system identities, roles, capabilities, impersonation, set-user transitions, and administrative helper paths.
  • Determine whether untrusted users or lower-privilege processes can reach the affected transition or modify inputs it trusts.
  • Review file, socket, registry, device, job, container, and cloud-role permissions used before and after privilege changes.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and redesign privileged operations as a minimal, authenticated, allowlisted interface.
  • Drop privileges before processing untrusted input, verify the drop succeeds, and remove unnecessary roles, capabilities, and write permissions.
  • Validate ownership and permissions at time of use and add explicit lower-to-higher privilege boundary tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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