CVE-2004-2730 in PsTools
Summary
by MITRE
Sysinternals PsTools before 2.05, including (1) PsExec before 1.54, (2) PsGetsid before 1.41, (3) PsInfo before 1.61, (4) PsKill before 1.03, (5) PsList before 1.26, (6) PsLoglist before 2.51, (7) PsPasswd before 1.21, (8) PsService before 2.12, (9) PsSuspend before 1.05, and (10) PsShutdown before 2.32, does not properly disconnect from remote IPC$ and ADMIN$ shares, which allows local users to access the shares with elevated privileges by using the existing share mapping.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/28/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2004-2730 affects multiple Sysinternals PsTools utilities, specifically versions prior to 2.05, including PsExec, PsGetsid, PsInfo, PsKill, PsList, PsLoglist, PsPasswd, PsService, PsSuspend, and PsShutdown. This flaw represents a critical privilege escalation issue that stems from improper handling of remote administrative shares during tool execution. The affected tools fail to properly terminate connections to the IPC$ and ADMIN$ shares that are established when performing remote operations, leaving these connections open and accessible to local users.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability lies in the improper cleanup of network connections within the Windows operating system. When these PsTools utilities execute remote commands or operations, they establish connections to the IPC$ administrative share for communication and the ADMIN$ share for file access. The flaw occurs because these tools do not explicitly disconnect from these shares upon completion of their operations, allowing the established connection mappings to persist in the local session. This persistence creates a security boundary violation where local users can leverage existing share mappings to access elevated resources that should normally be restricted to authorized remote administrators.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability enables local users to gain elevated privileges by exploiting the lingering share connections. The impact extends beyond simple privilege escalation to include potential data exfiltration, system manipulation, and unauthorized access to sensitive administrative resources. Attackers can utilize this flaw to access files, execute commands, and potentially compromise entire systems through the persistent administrative shares that remain accessible after the tools have completed their intended functions. The vulnerability affects systems where these tools are installed locally, making it particularly dangerous in environments where multiple users have local access to systems running vulnerable versions of the PsTools utilities.
The security implications of this vulnerability align with CWE-613, which addresses "Insufficient Session Expiration" and represents a classic case of improper resource cleanup leading to privilege escalation. This flaw also maps to ATT&CK technique T1059, "Command and Scripting Interpreter," as it enables local users to execute commands through the elevated share access, and T1068, "Exploitation for Privilege Escalation," since the vulnerability directly facilitates gaining higher privileges. Organizations should prioritize immediate remediation by upgrading to Sysinternals PsTools version 2.05 or later, which properly handles share disconnection. Additional mitigations include restricting local user access to systems with vulnerable tools, implementing proper network segmentation, and monitoring for unauthorized share access patterns. System administrators should also conduct comprehensive audits to identify and remove vulnerable installations, while ensuring that proper access controls are enforced on administrative shares to minimize the attack surface.