# CVE-2016-8769: Privilege escalation in Huawei UTPS

> An attacker can execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges by placing a malicious executable in the unquoted service path of Huawei UTPS.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 2 Apr 2017
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-qvhx-9828-527h

## What is CVE-2016-8769?

CVE-2016-8769 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Huawei UTPS, published on 2 Apr 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Huawei UTPS earlier than UTPS-V200R003B015D16SPC00C983 has an unquoted service path vulnerability which can lead to the truncation of UTPS service query paths. An attacker may put an executable file in the search path of the affected service and obtain elevated privileges after the executable file is executed.

Weakness: CWE-264

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2016-8769?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Huawei Utps Firmware.

## How do I fix CVE-2016-8769?

No fix has been published for CVE-2016-8769 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2016-8769 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2016-8769 exists.

Public exploit code:

- Huawei UTPS - Unquoted Service Path Privilege Escalation (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in Huawei UTPS

- [CVE-2016-2780](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-2780/): Path traversal in n/a (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2016-8769 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2016-8769 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Huawei UTPS, published on 2 Apr 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2016-8769 exists.

Affected product: Huawei UTPS. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8769/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8769/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2016-8769
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-8769
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2016-8769

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8769/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.