# CVE-2025-38738: Privilege escalation in SupportAssist for Home PCs

> A local low-privileged attacker can exploit an incorrect privilege assignment in the Dell SupportAssist installer to elevate privileges.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/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:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 14 Aug 2025
- **Updated:** 26 Feb 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-rfp2-79f8-55cv

## What is CVE-2025-38738?

CVE-2025-38738 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Dell SupportAssist for Home PCs, published on 14 Aug 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

SupportAssist for Home PCs Installer exe version(s) 4.8.2.29006 and prior, contain(s) an Incorrect Privilege Assignment vulnerability in the Installer. A low privileged attacker with local access could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to elevation of privileges.

Weakness: CWE-266 (Incorrect Privilege Assignment)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-38738?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Dell Supportassist for Home Pcs.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-38738?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-38738 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2025-38738 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38738 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Dell SupportAssist for Home PCs

- [CVE-2021-36297](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-36297/): Other in SupportAssist Client Consumer (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2024-38305](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-38305/): Privilege escalation in SupportAssist for Home PCs (high 7.3)
- [CVE-2023-48670](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-48670/): Privilege escalation in SupportAssist Client Consumer (high 7.3)
- [CVE-2023-25535](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-25535/): Privilege escalation in SupportAssist Client Consumer (high 7.2)
- [CVE-2022-34366](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-34366/): Security feature bypass in SupportAssist Client Consumer (medium 6.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-38738 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-38738 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Dell SupportAssist for Home PCs, published on 14 Aug 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-38738 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Dell SupportAssist for Home PCs. 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-2025-38738/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38738/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38738
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-38738
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-38738

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-38738/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.