Vulnerabilities > CVE-2019-18670 - Untrusted Search Path vulnerability in Acer Quick Access

047910
CVSS 6.9 - MEDIUM
Attack vector
LOCAL
Attack complexity
MEDIUM
Privileges required
NONE
Confidentiality impact
COMPLETE
Integrity impact
COMPLETE
Availability impact
COMPLETE

Summary

In the Quick Access Service (QAAdminAgent.exe) in Acer Quick Access V2.01.3000 through 2.01.3027 and V3.00.3000 through V3.00.3008, a REGULAR user can load an arbitrary unsigned DLL into the signed service's process, which is running as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM. This is a DLL Hijacking vulnerability (including search order hijacking, which searches for the missing DLL in the PATH environment variable), which is caused by an uncontrolled search path element for nvapi.dll, atiadlxx.dll, or atiadlxy.dll.

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

  • Leveraging/Manipulating Configuration File Search Paths
    This attack loads a malicious resource into a program's standard path used to bootstrap and/or provide contextual information for a program like a path variable or classpath. J2EE applications and other component based applications that are built from multiple binaries can have very long list of dependencies to execute. If one of these libraries and/or references is controllable by the attacker then application controls can be circumvented by the attacker. A standard UNIX path looks similar to this If the attacker modifies the path variable to point to a locale that includes malicious resources then the user unwittingly can execute commands on the attackers' behalf: This is a form of usurping control of the program and the attack can be done on the classpath, database resources, or any other resources built from compound parts. At runtime detection and blocking of this attack is nearly impossible, because the configuration allows execution.