An unprivileged (non-admin) user can exploit an Improper Access Control vulnerability in the Cloudflare WARP Client for Windows (<= 2022.12.582.0) to perform privileged operations with SYSTEM context by working with a combination of opportunistic locks (oplock) and symbolic links (which can both be created by an unprivileged user). After installing the Cloudflare WARP Client (admin privileges required), an MSI-Installer is placed under C:\Windows\Installer. The vulnerability lies in the repair function of this MSI. ImpactAn unprivileged (non-admin) user can exploit this vulnerability to perform privileged operations with SYSTEM context, including deleting arbitrary files and reading arbitrary file content. This can lead to a variety of attacks, including the manipulation of system files and privilege escalation. PatchesA new installer with a fix that addresses this vulnerability was released in version 2023.3.381.0. While the WARP Client itself is not vulnerable (only the installer), users are encouraged to upgrade to the latest version and delete any older installers present in their systems.

G DATA Total Security Link Following Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows local attackers to escalate privileges on affected installations of G DATA Total Security. An attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system in order to exploit this vulnerability. The specific flaw exists within the G DATA Backup Service. By creating a symbolic link, an attacker can abuse the service to overwrite a file. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of SYSTEM. Was ZDI-CAN-22313.

Visual Studio Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Link Following Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in TuneupSvc.exe in AVG TuneUp 24.2.16593.9844 on Windows allows local attackers to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of SYSTEM via creating a symbolic link and leveraging the service to delete a directory

A link following privilege escalation vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex One (on-prem and SaaS) and Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security (10.0 SP1 and Services) could allow a local attacker to create a specially crafted file with arbitrary content which could grant local privilege escalation on the affected system. Please note: an attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system in order to exploit this vulnerability.

Link Following Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in TuneupSvc in Avast Cleanup Premium Version 24.2.16593.17810 on Windows 10 Pro x64 allows local attackers to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of SYSTEM via creating a symbolic link and leveraging a TOCTTOU (time-of-check to time-of-use) attack.

Link Following Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in TuneupSvc in Gen Digital Inc. Avast Cleanup Premium Version 24.2.16593.17810 on Windows 10 Pro x64 allows local attackers to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of SYSTEM via creating a symbolic link and leveraging a TOCTTOU (time-of-check to time-of-use) attack.

Local Privilege Escalation in Avira.Spotlight.Service.exe in Avira Prime 1.1.96.2 on Windows 10 x64  allows local attackers to gain system-level privileges via arbitrary file deletion

Link Following Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in TuneUp Service in AVG TuneUp Version 23.4 (build 15592) on Windows 10 allows local attackers to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of SYSTEM via creating a symbolic link and leveraging a TOCTTOU (time-of-check to time-of-use) attack.

Wacom Center WTabletServicePro Link Following Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows local attackers to escalate privileges on affected installations of Wacom Center. An attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system in order to exploit this vulnerability. The specific flaw exists within WTabletServicePro.exe. By creating a symbolic link, an attacker can abuse the service to create an arbitrary file. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of SYSTEM. Was ZDI-CAN-25359.

Panda Security Dome Link Following Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows local attackers to escalate privileges on affected installations of Panda Security Dome. An attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system in order to exploit this vulnerability. The specific flaw exists within the Hotspot Shield. By creating a junction, an attacker can abuse the application to delete arbitrary files. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of SYSTEM. Was ZDI-CAN-23478.

An issue was discovered in Quagga through 1.2.4. Unsafe chown/chmod operations in the suggested spec file allow users (with control of the non-root-owned directory /etc/quagga) to escalate their privileges to root upon package installation or update.

Bluetooth HCI Adaptor from Realtek has a Link Following vulnerability. Local attackers with regular privileges can create a symbolic link with the same name as a specific file, causing the product to delete arbitrary files pointed to by the link. Subsequently, attackers can leverage arbitrary file deletion to privilege escalation.

A Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following') vulnerability in a script called by the sendmail systemd service of openSUSE Factory allows local attackers to escalate from user mail to root. This issue affects: SUSE openSUSE Factory sendmail versions prior to 8.17.1-1.1.

A UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following vulnerability in keylime of openSUSE Tumbleweed allows local attackers to escalate from the keylime user to root. This issue affects: openSUSE Tumbleweed keylime versions prior to 6.4.2-1.1.

Vulnerabilities in the Drive Composer allow a low privileged attacker to create and write to a file anywhere on the file system as SYSTEM with arbitrary content as long as the file does not already exist. The Drive Composer installer file allows a low-privileged user to run a "repair" operation on the product.

Windows Authentication Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Vulnerabilities in the Drive Composer allow a low privileged attacker to create and write to a file anywhere on the file system as SYSTEM with arbitrary content as long as the file does not already exist. The Drive Composer installer file allows a low-privileged user to run a "repair" operation on the product.

Vulnerabilities in the Drive Composer allow a low privileged attacker to create and write to a file anywhere on the file system as SYSTEM with arbitrary content as long as the file does not already exist. The Drive Composer installer file allows a low-privileged user to run a "repair" operation on the product.

A symbolic link manipulation vulnerability in Trellix Anti-Malware Engine prior to the January 2024 release allows an authenticated local user to potentially gain an escalation of privileges. This was achieved by adding an entry to the registry under the Trellix ENS registry folder with a symbolic link to files that the user wouldn't normally have permission to. After a scan, the Engine would follow the links and remove the files

Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following') vulnerability in HYPR Workforce Access on MacOS allows User-Controlled Filename.This issue affects Workforce Access: before 8.7.

Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following') vulnerability in HYPR Workforce Access on Windows allows User-Controlled Filename.This issue affects Workforce Access: before 8.7.

replay-sorcery-kms in Replay Sorcery 0.6.0 allows a local attacker to gain root privileges via a symlink attack on /tmp/replay-sorcery or /tmp/replay-sorcery/device.sock.

Libcontainer 1.6.0, as used in Docker Engine, allows local users to escape containerization ("mount namespace breakout") and write to arbitrary file on the host system via a symlink attack in an image when respawning a container.

HashiCorp Vagrant's Windows installer targeted a custom location with a non-protected path that could be junctioned, introducing potential for unauthorized file system writes. Fixed in Vagrant 2.4.0.

The default event handling scripts in Automatic Bug Reporting Tool (ABRT) allow local users to gain privileges as demonstrated by a symlink attack on a var_log_messages file.

Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based) Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

The Zoom Client for Meetings for Windows in all versions before version 5.3.2 writes log files to a user writable directory as a privileged user during the installation or update of the client. This could allow for potential privilege escalation if a link was created between the user writable directory used and a non-user writable directory.

Western Digital My Cloud OS 5 devices before 5.10.122 mishandle Symbolic Link Following on SMB and AFP shares. This can lead to code execution and information disclosure (by reading local files).

The XPC implementation in Admin Framework in Apple OS X before 10.10.3 allows local users to bypass authentication and obtain admin privileges via unspecified vectors.

Trend Micro Security (Consumer) 2021 and 2020 are vulnerable to a directory junction vulnerability which could allow an attacker to exploit the system to escalate privileges and create a denial of service.

Digi ConnectPort X2e before 3.2.30.6 allows an attacker to escalate privileges from the python user to root via a symlink attack that uses chown, related to /etc/init.d/S50dropbear.sh and the /WEB/python/.ssh directory.

An issue was discovered in Icinga2 before v2.12.0-rc1. The prepare-dirs script (run as part of the icinga2 systemd service) executes chmod 2750 /run/icinga2/cmd. /run/icinga2 is under control of an unprivileged user by default. If /run/icinga2/cmd is a symlink, then it will by followed and arbitrary files can be changed to mode 2750 by the unprivileged icinga2 user.

An issue was discovered in file profile.go in function MemProf in beego through 2.0.2, allows attackers to launch symlink attacks locally.

Diagnostics Hub Standard Collector Service Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

A UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following vulnerability in python-postorius of openSUSE Leap 15.2, Factory allows local attackers to escalate from users postorius or postorius-admin to root. This issue affects: openSUSE Leap 15.2 python-postorius version 1.3.2-lp152.1.2 and prior versions. openSUSE Factory python-postorius version 1.3.4-2.1 and prior versions.

Improper privileges management vulnerability in McAfee Endpoint Security (ENS) Windows prior to 10.7.0 September 2021 Update allows local users to access files which they would otherwise not have access to via manipulating junction links to redirect McAfee folder operations to an unintended location.

avahi-daemon-check-dns.sh in the Debian avahi package through 0.8-4 is executed as root via /etc/network/if-up.d/avahi-daemon, and allows a local attacker to cause a denial of service or create arbitrary empty files via a symlink attack on files under /run/avahi-daemon. NOTE: this only affects the packaging for Debian GNU/Linux (used indirectly by SUSE), not the upstream Avahi product.

Windows Update Stack Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Windows User Account Profile Picture Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Avira Antivirus before 5.0.2003.1821 on Windows allows privilege escalation or a denial of service via abuse of a symlink.

This affects the package juce-framework/JUCE before 6.1.5. This vulnerability is triggered when a malicious archive is crafted with an entry containing a symbolic link. When extracted, the symbolic link is followed outside of the target dir allowing writing arbitrary files on the target host. In some cases, this can allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code. The vulnerable code is in the ZipFile::uncompressEntry function in juce_ZipFile.cpp and is executed when the archive is extracted upon calling uncompressTo() on a ZipFile object.

NCP Secure Enterprise Client before 10.15 r47589 allows a symbolic link attack on enumusb.reg via Support Assistant.

SWHKD 1.1.5 unsafely uses the /tmp/swhkd.pid pathname. There can be an information leak or denial of service.

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when Windows AppX Deployment Service (AppXSVC) improperly handles hard links. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run processes in an elevated context. An attacker could then install programs; view, change or delete data. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would first have to log on to the system. An attacker could then run a specially crafted application that could exploit the vulnerability and take control of an affected system. The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how Windows AppX Deployment Service handles hard links.

ESET Antivirus and Antispyware Module module 1553 through 1560 allows a user with limited access rights to create hard links in some ESET directories and then force the product to write through these links into files that would normally not be write-able by the user, thus achieving privilege escalation.

Link following in Zoom Rooms for macOS before version 5.16.0 may allow an authenticated user to conduct an escalation of privilege via local access.

The Sierra Wireless Windows Mobile Broadband Driver Packages (MBDP) before build 5043 allows an unprivileged user to overwrite arbitrary files in arbitrary folders using hard links. An unprivileged user could leverage this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code with system privileges.

PAX Android based POS devices with PayDroid_8.1.0_Sagittarius_V11.1.50_20230614 or earlier can allow for command execution with high privileges by using malicious symlinks. The attacker must have shell access to the device in order to exploit this vulnerability.

An issue existed within the path validation logic for symlinks. This issue was addressed with improved path sanitization. This issue is fixed in iOS 13.6 and iPadOS 13.6, macOS Catalina 10.15.6, tvOS 13.4.8. A local attacker may be able to elevate their privileges.