CVE-2023-32175 in Antivirus Plus
Summary
by MITRE • 05/03/2024
VIPRE Antivirus Plus Link Following Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows local attackers to escalate privileges on affected installations of VIPRE Antivirus Plus. 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 Anti Malware Service. By creating a symbolic link, an attacker can abuse the service to create arbitrary files. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of SYSTEM. Was ZDI-CAN-18899.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/08/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2023-32175 represents a critical local privilege escalation flaw within VIPRE Antivirus Plus software, specifically affecting the Anti Malware Service component. This weakness enables attackers with low-privileged user access to elevate their privileges to SYSTEM level, creating a severe security risk for affected systems. The vulnerability stems from improper handling of symbolic links within the antivirus service architecture, allowing malicious actors to manipulate file creation processes and ultimately gain complete system control. The flaw was independently discovered and documented as ZDI-CAN-18899, highlighting its significance in the cybersecurity community. The vulnerability's impact is particularly concerning because it requires minimal initial access to exploit, making it a prime target for attackers seeking to establish persistent system-level control.
The technical exploitation mechanism involves the attacker creating a symbolic link that the Anti Malware Service processes incorrectly. When the service attempts to create files or directories, it follows the symbolic link and creates arbitrary files in locations that would normally require elevated privileges. This represents a classic improper input validation vulnerability where the service fails to properly validate or sanitize the symbolic link paths before processing them. The flaw essentially creates a path traversal scenario within the antivirus service context, allowing attackers to write files to arbitrary locations on the filesystem. This behavior violates fundamental security principles of least privilege and proper access control enforcement, as the service should not be able to create files outside of its intended operational boundaries.
From an operational standpoint, this vulnerability presents a significant risk to enterprise environments where VIPRE Antivirus Plus is deployed. The ability to escalate privileges from a low-privileged user account to SYSTEM level provides attackers with complete control over affected systems, enabling them to install backdoors, modify system configurations, access sensitive data, and establish persistent access. The vulnerability's exploitation requires only local access, meaning attackers who have already compromised a user account or gained physical access to a system can leverage this flaw to achieve system-level compromise. This makes it particularly dangerous in environments where users may have legitimate access to systems but where privilege escalation could lead to unauthorized access to critical infrastructure or data repositories.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the latest security patches from VIPRE, restricting local user access to systems where the vulnerable software is installed, and monitoring for suspicious file creation activities in system directories. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-22 (Path Traversal) and CWE-78 (OS Command Injection) categories, representing a combination of path manipulation and privilege escalation techniques. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to T1068 (Local Privilege Escalation) and T1548.002 (Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism), demonstrating how attackers can leverage legitimate system services to bypass security controls. Security teams should also consider implementing additional monitoring for symbolic link creation and file system modifications in system directories, as these activities may indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability underscores the importance of proper input validation and privilege separation in security-critical services, particularly those running with elevated privileges.