# CVE-2018-7715: Privilege escalation in n/a

> A local attacker can exploit an insecure XPC service in the PrivateVPN macOS helper tool to execute arbitrary code with root privileges.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.8 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 5 Mar 2018
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-rgw7-x8vf-5xc5

## What is CVE-2018-7715?

CVE-2018-7715 is a critical vulnerability in n/a, published on 5 Mar 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

PrivateVPN 2.0.31 for macOS suffers from a root privilege escalation vulnerability with its com.privat.vpn.helper privileged helper tool. This privileged helper tool implements an XPC service that allows arbitrary installed applications to connect and send messages. The XPC service extracts the path string from the corresponding XPC message. This string is supposed to point to PrivateVPN's internal openvpn binary. If a new connection has not already been established, an attacker can send the XPC service a malicious XPC message with the path string pointing at a binary that he or she controls. This results in the execution of arbitrary code as the root user.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-7715?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Privatevpn Privatevpn.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-7715?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-7715 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-7715 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-7715 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2018-7716](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-7716/): Privilege escalation in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2018-7311](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-7311/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-7715 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-7715 is a critical vulnerability in n/a, published on 5 Mar 2018. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-7715 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-2018-7715/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-7715/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-7715
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-7715
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-7715

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-7715/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.