CVE-2018-10169 json
ProtonVPN 1.3.3 for Windows suffers from a SYSTEM privilege escalation vulnerability through the "ProtonVPN Service" service.
published 2018-04-16 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-2247
- cvss
- 9.8
- version 3.0, NVD
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 2.5%
- EPSS 2.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 84%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
ProtonVPN 1.3.3 for Windows suffers from a SYSTEM privilege escalation vulnerability through the "ProtonVPN Service" service. This service establishes an NetNamedPipe endpoint that allows arbitrary installed applications to connect and call publicly exposed methods. The "Connect" method accepts a class instance argument that provides attacker control of the OpenVPN command line. An attacker can specify a dynamic library plugin that should run for every new VPN connection. This plugin will execute code in the context of the SYSTEM user.
Exploit prediction
2.45% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 84% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).
CVSS scores
| assigned by | version | score | vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVD | 3.0 | 9.8 | CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVD | 2.0 | 10.0 | AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C |
Classification
- Weakness
-
- CWE-732 Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
References
-
github.com
/VerSprite/research/blob/master/advisories/VS-2018-017.md
third-party-advisory
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2018-10169
- NVD CVE-2018-10169
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