CVE-2022-24285 in Care Center
Summary
by MITRE • 03/10/2022
Acer Care Center 4.00.30xx before 4.00.3042 contains a local privilege escalation vulnerability. The user process communicates with a service of system authority called ACCsvc through a named pipe. In this case, the Named Pipe is also given Read and Write rights to the general user. In addition, the service program does not verify the user when communicating. A thread may exist with a specific command. When the path of the program to be executed is sent, there is a local privilege escalation in which the service program executes the path with system privileges.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/14/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-24285 resides within Acer Care Center version 4.00.30xx prior to 4.00.3042, representing a critical local privilege escalation flaw that undermines the security boundaries of the affected system. This vulnerability specifically targets the communication mechanism between the user-facing Acer Care Center application and its underlying system service component known as ACCsvc. The flaw manifests through improper access control mechanisms that allow unauthorized user processes to interact with a system-level service through a named pipe communication channel.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the inadequate security configuration of the named pipe communication channel used by the ACCsvc service. The named pipe is configured with permissions that grant read and write access to general user accounts, creating an attack surface that should only be accessible to system-level processes. This misconfiguration allows any local user to establish communication with the privileged service without proper authentication or authorization checks. The service component fails to validate the identity or privileges of the connecting user process, creating a fundamental security gap in the access control model.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe as it enables a local attacker to execute arbitrary code with system-level privileges through the compromised service communication channel. When a user process sends a command containing an executable path to the ACCsvc service, the service executes this path with elevated privileges. This design flaw allows an attacker to potentially replace legitimate system binaries with malicious executables, install rootkits, or modify system configurations without proper authorization. The vulnerability essentially provides a direct pathway for privilege escalation from user level to system level without requiring any additional attack vectors.
The underlying cause of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-284, which addresses improper access control in software systems, and represents a classic example of a privilege escalation vulnerability where insufficient authentication mechanisms allow unauthorized access to privileged operations. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to T1068, which covers 'Local Privilege Escalation' and potentially T1547, which deals with 'Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder' if the attacker leverages the privilege escalation to establish persistence mechanisms. The vulnerability also demonstrates characteristics of T1059, 'Command and Scripting Interpreter', as the service executes commands received through the named pipe communication channel.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2022-24285 should focus on immediate patch deployment to version 4.00.3042 or later, which addresses the improper access control configuration. System administrators should also implement additional security measures including restricting access to the named pipe through proper ACL configuration, implementing mandatory access controls, and conducting regular security audits of system services. Network segmentation and privilege separation principles should be enforced to limit the potential impact of such vulnerabilities, while monitoring solutions should be deployed to detect unauthorized access attempts to privileged system components. Organizations should also consider implementing application whitelisting policies to prevent execution of unauthorized binaries through the vulnerable service interface.