CVE-2018-18435 — KioWare Server version 4

KioWare Server version 4.9.6 and older installs by default to "C:\kioware_com" with weak folder permissions granting any user full permission "Everyone: (F)" to the contents of the directory and it's sub-folders. In addition, the program installs a servic

01What is this vulnerability?

KioWare Server version 4.9.6 and older installs by default to "C:\kioware_com" with weak folder permissions granting any user full permission "Everyone: (F)" to the contents of the directory and it's sub-folders. In addition, the program installs a service called "KWSService" which runs as "Localsystem", this will allow any user to escalate privileges to "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" by substituting the…

02Affected products

Vendor	Product	Versions
n	a / n/a	n/a

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Ask SARA in chat to draft a starting detection for this CVE in your stack of choice.

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2019-03-17T19:11:14.000Z
• Last modified: 2024-08-05T11:08:21.833Z

09References

• packetstormsecurity.com — http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/151031/KioWare-Server-4.9.6-Privilege-Escal…
• www.exploit-db.com — https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/46093/
• m.kioware.com — https://m.kioware.com/news/kioware-press-releases/kioware_server_security_patch_…
• www.kioware.com — https://www.kioware.com/patch.aspx
• github.com — https://github.com/active-labs/Advisories/blob/master/2019/ACTIVE-2019-002.md