Compliance Impact

The vulnerability allows local attackers to escalate privileges to LocalSystem by exploiting unquoted service paths in IObit Malware Fighter 4.3.1. This privilege escalation can lead to unauthorized access and control over the affected system.

Such unauthorized privilege escalation and potential system compromise can negatively impact compliance with common standards and regulations like GDPR and HIPAA, which require strict controls over access to sensitive data and system integrity.

If exploited, this vulnerability could result in unauthorized data access or modification, violating confidentiality, integrity, and availability requirements mandated by these regulations.

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Executive Summary

CVE-2016-20059 is an unquoted service path vulnerability found in IObit Malware Fighter version 4.3.1, specifically affecting the IMFservice and LiveUpdateSvc Windows services.

These services have executable paths that are not enclosed in quotation marks, and both run under the LocalSystem account with auto-start enabled.

Because the paths contain spaces and are unquoted, a local attacker can place a malicious executable in a directory along the service path (for example, in "C:\Program.exe" or "C:\Program Files\IObit\IObit.exe").

When the service restarts or the system reboots, Windows may mistakenly execute the attacker's malicious executable instead of the intended service binary, resulting in code execution with elevated LocalSystem privileges.

This vulnerability exploits a Windows service configuration weakness known as CWE-428 (Unquoted Search Path or Element).

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability allows a local attacker to escalate their privileges on the affected system.

By placing a malicious executable in an unquoted service path, the attacker can execute arbitrary code with LocalSystem privileges when the service restarts or the system reboots.

This means the attacker gains the highest level of access on the system, potentially allowing them to fully control the machine, access sensitive data, install malware, or disrupt system operations.

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Detection Guidance

This vulnerability can be detected by checking the service executable paths for unquoted spaces in the IMFservice and LiveUpdateSvc services on Windows systems.

You can use Windows command-line tools to list the service paths and identify unquoted paths that contain spaces.

• Run the command: sc qc IMFservice
• Run the command: sc qc LiveUpdateSvc

Examine the output for the BINARY_PATH_NAME field. If the path contains spaces and is not enclosed in quotes, the service is vulnerable.

Alternatively, you can use PowerShell to query the service paths and check for unquoted spaces.

• Get-WmiObject win32_service | Where-Object {($_.Name -eq 'IMFservice' -or $_.Name -eq 'LiveUpdateSvc') -and ($_.PathName -match ' ') -and ($_.PathName -notmatch '"')}

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Mitigation Strategies

To mitigate this vulnerability, immediately ensure that the service executable paths for IMFservice and LiveUpdateSvc are enclosed in quotes to prevent unquoted service path exploitation.

You can fix the service paths by editing the registry or using the sc config command to update the binary path with quotes.

• Use the command: sc config IMFservice binPath= ""C:\Program Files\IObit\IObit Malware Fighter\IMFsrv.exe""
• Use the command: sc config LiveUpdateSvc binPath= ""C:\Program Files\IObit\LiveUpdate\LiveUpdate.exe""

After updating the service paths, restart the affected services or reboot the system to apply the changes.

Additionally, restrict local user permissions to prevent unauthorized users from placing executables in directories along the service path.

Keep the software updated and monitor for patches from the vendor addressing this issue.

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