CVE-2018-19650 in AVL ATool Security Management
Summary
by MITRE
Local attackers can trigger a stack-based buffer overflow on vulnerable installations of Antiy-AVL ATool security management v1.0.0.22. 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 processing of IOCTL 0x80002000 by the IRPFile.sys Antiy-AVL ATool kernel driver. The bug is caused by failure to properly validate the length of the user-supplied data, which results in a kernel stack buffer overflow. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code in the context of the kernel, which could lead to privilege escalation and a failed exploit could lead to denial of service.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/13/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-19650 represents a critical stack-based buffer overflow flaw within the Antiy-AVL ATool security management software version 1.0.0.22. This issue resides in the kernel driver component known as IRPFile.sys which handles IOCTL (Input/Output Control) operations for system-level communication. The flaw specifically manifests when processing IOCTL command 0x80002000, making it a targeted vulnerability that requires understanding of the driver's internal communication protocols. The vulnerability classification aligns with CWE-121 Stack-based Buffer Overflow, which occurs when a program writes data beyond the bounds of a fixed-length stack buffer, potentially corrupting adjacent memory locations.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation within the kernel driver's handling of user-supplied data structures. When the IRPFile.sys driver receives the specified IOCTL command, it fails to properly verify the length parameter associated with the input data buffer. This validation failure allows an attacker to supply more data than the allocated stack buffer can accommodate, resulting in memory corruption that overflows into adjacent stack memory regions. The vulnerability's exploitation requires a pre-existing condition where an attacker has already achieved low-privileged code execution on the target system, which aligns with the ATT&CK technique T1068 for locally executed code and T1059 for command and scripting interpreter usage.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation to encompass potential system compromise and denial of service conditions. Successful exploitation enables an attacker to execute arbitrary code with kernel-level privileges, effectively bypassing all user-mode security controls and access restrictions. This kernel-level execution context provides complete system control, including the ability to manipulate system memory, disable security features, and establish persistent access. The vulnerability's potential for denial of service exists even when exploitation fails, as the buffer overflow can corrupt kernel stack memory in ways that may cause system crashes or unpredictable behavior. The attack vector requires local system access, making it a privilege escalation vulnerability rather than a remote exploit, but the implications for system integrity remain severe.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should focus on both immediate remediation and long-term security hardening approaches. The primary solution involves updating to a patched version of Antiy-AVL ATool software that properly validates input lengths before processing IOCTL commands. System administrators should also implement kernel-mode exploit protection mechanisms including DEP (Data Execution Prevention) and ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) to reduce exploit reliability. Additional protective measures include implementing driver signature enforcement, restricting user privileges to minimize successful local code execution opportunities, and monitoring for suspicious IOCTL activity patterns. The vulnerability's nature as a kernel-level buffer overflow also necessitates regular system integrity checking and memory analysis to detect potential exploitation attempts, with security monitoring focused on identifying unusual kernel-mode memory access patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts.