IBM Robotic Process Automation privilege escalation

published 2025-01-18 21 mo ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2024-45798

cvss: 6.7; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.1%; EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 4%
public exploits: 0; none known

IBM Robotic Process Automation 21.0.0 through 21.0.7.17 and 23.0.0 through 23.0.18 could allow a local user to escalate their privileges. All files in the install inherit the file permissions of the parent directory and therefore a non-privileged user can substitute any executable for the nssm.exe service. A subsequent service or server restart will then run that binary with administrator privilege.

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical impact: total
Assessed: 21 mo ago (2025-01-21)

Exploit prediction

0.15% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 4% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.1	6.7	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

IBM Robotic Process Automation

Classification

Weakness

CWE-277 Insecure Inherited Permissions
CWE-732 Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource

References

ibm.com /support/pages/node/7177586
vendor-advisory

Sources

CVE List CVE-2024-51448
NVD CVE-2024-51448

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary