# CVE-2018-6855: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Local attackers can escalate privileges to SYSTEM by exploiting an IOCTL vulnerability in Sophos SafeGuard products to modify token privileges.

- **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:** 9 Jul 2018
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-cqrm-4g9f-vx78

## What is CVE-2018-6855?

CVE-2018-6855 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 9 Jul 2018. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Sophos SafeGuard Enterprise before 8.00.5, SafeGuard Easy before 7.00.3, and SafeGuard LAN Crypt before 3.95.2 are vulnerable to Local Privilege Escalation via IOCTL 0x80202014. By crafting an input buffer we can control the execution path to the point where the constant 0xFFFFFFF will be written to a user-controlled address. We can take advantage of this condition to modify the SEP_TOKEN_PRIVILEGES structure of the Token object belonging to the exploit process and grant SE_DEBUG_NAME privilege. This allows the exploit process to interact with higher privileged processes running as SYSTEM and execute code in their security context.

Weakness: CWE-119 (Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-6855?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Sophos Safeguard Easy Device Encryption Client, Sophos Safeguard Enterprise Client, Sophos Safeguard Lan Crypt Client.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-6855?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-6855 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-6855 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-6855 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2018-6851](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6851/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2018-6852](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6852/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2018-6853](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6853/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2018-6854](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6854/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2018-6856](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6856/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-6855 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-6855 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 9 Jul 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-2018-6855 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-2018-6855/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6855/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-6855
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-6855
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-6855

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6855/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.