Parallels Desktop Command Injection Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

December 20th, 2019
ZDI-19-1028 ZDI-CAN-8685

CVE ID

CVE-2019-17148

CVSS Score

7.8 AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected Vendors

Parallels

Affected Products

Desktop

Vulnerability Details

This vulnerability allows local attackers to escalate privileges on affected installations of Parallels Desktop. An attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target guest system in order to exploit this vulnerability.

The specific flaw exists within the Parallels Service. The issue results from the lack of proper validation of a user-supplied string before using it to execute a system call. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to escalate privileges and execute code in the context of root.

Additional Details

Fixed in version 15.1.1


Disclosure Timeline

  • 2019-07-22 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
  • 2019-12-20 - Coordinated public release of advisory

Credit

Juno Im (@junorouse) from Theori

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