# CVE-2018-20735: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Low-privileged domain users can escalate to SYSTEM on PATROL Agent hosts due to missing permission checks, enabling lateral movement in Active Directory.

- **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:** 17 Jan 2019
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-pjqr-f9gr-wm84

## What is CVE-2018-20735?

CVE-2018-20735 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 17 Jan 2019. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An issue was discovered in BMC PATROL Agent through 11.3.01. It was found that the PatrolCli application can allow for lateral movement and escalation of privilege inside a Windows Active Directory environment. It was found that by default the PatrolCli / PATROL Agent application only verifies if the password provided for the given username is correct; it does not verify the permissions of the user on the network. This means if you have PATROL Agent installed on a high value target (domain controller), you can use a low privileged domain user to authenticate with PatrolCli and then connect to the domain controller and run commands as SYSTEM. This means any user on a domain can escalate to domain admin through PATROL Agent. NOTE: the vendor disputes this because they believe it is adequate to prevent this escalation by means of a custom, non-default configuration

Weakness: CWE-287 (Improper Authentication)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-20735?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Bmc Patrol Agent.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-20735?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-20735 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-20735 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2018-20735 exists.

Public exploit code:

- BMC Patrol Agent Privilege Escalation Cmd Execution (metasploit)
- BMC Patrol Agent - Privilege Escalation Code Execution Execution (Metasploit) (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2008-5982](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-5982/): Other in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-1999-0801](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-0801/): Auth bypass in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-1999-0443](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-0443/): Auth bypass in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2023-34257](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-34257/): Missing authorization in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-8352](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-8352/): Hardcoded credentials in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-20735 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-20735 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 17 Jan 2019. 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-2018-20735 exists.

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-2018-20735/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-20735/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-20735
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-20735
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-20735

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-20735/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.