# CVE-2018-10646: Privilege escalation in n/a

> A local attacker can escalate privileges to SYSTEM by exploiting an insecure named pipe in the CyberGhost VPN service to execute arbitrary code via OpenVPN plugins.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 2 May 2018
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-537h-9xcq-rw7q

## What is CVE-2018-10646?

CVE-2018-10646 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 2 May 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

CyberGhost 6.5.0.3180 for Windows suffers from a SYSTEM privilege escalation vulnerability through the "CG6Service" service. This service establishes a NetNamedPipe endpoint that allows arbitrary installed applications to connect and call publicly exposed methods. The "ConnectToVpnServer" method accepts a "connectionParams" argument that provides attacker control of the OpenVPN command line. An attacker can specify a dynamic library plugin that should run for every new VPN connection attempt. This plugin will execute code in the context of the SYSTEM user.

Weakness: CWE-732 (Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-10646?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cyberghostvpn Cyberghost.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-10646?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-10646 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-10646 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-10646 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2023-30237](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-30237/): Code injection in n/a (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-10646 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-10646 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 2 May 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-10646 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. 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-2018-10646/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-10646/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-10646
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-10646
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-10646

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-10646/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.