Privilege Escalation via Unquoted Service Path in Wondershare PDFelement

Compliance Impact

The vulnerability allows local attackers to escalate privileges to LocalSystem by exploiting an unquoted service path in Wondershare PDFelement 5.2.9. This could lead to unauthorized access and control over the affected system.

Such unauthorized privilege escalation and potential system compromise can impact compliance with standards and regulations like GDPR and HIPAA, which require protection of sensitive data and secure system access controls.

If exploited, this vulnerability could lead to data breaches or unauthorized data access, thereby violating requirements for data confidentiality, integrity, and security mandated by these regulations.

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Executive Summary

Wondershare PDFelement version 5.2.9 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability caused by an unquoted service path in the WsAppService Windows service.

This flaw allows local attackers to place a malicious executable in the service path, which will be executed with LocalSystem privileges when the service restarts or the system reboots.

Because the service path is unquoted, Windows may incorrectly interpret the path and execute an attacker-controlled executable, leading to elevated privileges.

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability allows a local attacker to escalate their privileges to LocalSystem level, which is the highest privilege level on a Windows system.

With LocalSystem privileges, an attacker can execute arbitrary code, modify system files, install persistent malware, and potentially take full control of the affected system.

This can lead to severe security breaches including data theft, system compromise, and disruption of services.

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Detection Guidance

This vulnerability is due to an unquoted service path in the WsAppService Windows service, which can be detected by checking the service path for unquoted spaces.

You can detect the vulnerability by inspecting the service path using Windows command line tools.

• Run the command: sc qc WsAppService
• Check the output for unquoted paths containing spaces, for example: C:\Program Files\Wondershare\PDFelement\WsAppService.exe without quotes.
• Alternatively, use PowerShell to get the ImagePath: Get-WmiObject win32_service | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq 'WsAppService'} | Select-Object Name, PathName

If the service path is unquoted and contains spaces, the system is vulnerable to this privilege escalation issue.

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Mitigation Strategies

To mitigate this vulnerability, immediately correct the unquoted service path by quoting the executable path in the WsAppService service configuration.

• Use the command: sc config WsAppService binPath= ""C:\Program Files\Wondershare\PDFelement\WsAppService.exe"" to add quotes around the service path.
• Restart the WsAppService service or reboot the system to apply the changes.

Additionally, ensure that no malicious executables exist in the service path directories and monitor for suspicious files.

Keep the Wondershare PDFelement software updated to the latest version where this vulnerability is fixed.

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