Wibu CodeMeter before 8.30a sometimes allows privilege escalation immediately after installation (before a logoff or reboot). For exploitation, there must have been an unprivileged installation with UAC, and the CodeMeter Control Center component must be installed, and the CodeMeter Control Center component must not have been restarted. In this scenario, the local user can navigate from Import License to a privileged instance of Windows Explorer.
Weakness
The elevated privilege level required to perform operations such as chroot() should be dropped immediately after the operation is performed.
Potential Mitigations
- Compartmentalize the system to have “safe” areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area.
- Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.
References