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Smart SecurityApplication · Eset

CVE-2008-5724

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v2.0 Published 2008-12-26
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 3.0.672 or later.
See remediation →
77/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
The Personal Firewall driver (aka epfw.sys) 3.0.672.0 and earlier in ESET Smart Security 3.0.672 and earlier allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted IRP in a certain METHOD_NEITHER IOCTL request to \Device\Epfw that overwrites portions of memory.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Local privilege escalation vulnerability in ESET Smart Security Personal Firewall driver (epfw.sys) versions 3.0.672.0 and earlier. The driver exposes \Device\Epfw device and accepts METHOD_NEITHER IOCTL requests without proper input validation, allowing local attackers to overwrite kernel memory and elevate privileges.

MitigationUpdate ESET Smart Security to a version newer than 3.0.672 to obtain patched driver. Apply vendor-supplied security update for epfw.sys.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Smart SecurityApplication
Affected:<= 3.0.672= 3.0.551= 3.0.560= 3.0.563= 3.0.621= 3.0.642= 3.0.650= 3.0.657= 3.0.667= 3.0.669

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check if ESET Smart Security is installed
    Open Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ESET\ESET Smart Security or check for the presence of the ESET installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\ESET\ESET Smart Security)
    Affected if ESET Smart Security is installed on the system
  2. Locate the epfw.sys driver file
    Search for epfw.sys in the ESET installation directory (commonly in C:\Program Files\ESET\ESET Smart Security\ or subfolders like drivers or modules)
    Affected if The epfw.sys driver file exists on the system
  3. Determine the driver file version
    Right-click on epfw.sys, select Properties, then go to the Details tab to view the File Version field. Alternatively, use PowerShell: (Get-Item 'C:\Program Files\ESET\ESET Smart Security\epfw.sys').VersionInfo.FileVersion
    Affected if The displayed version is 3.0.672.0 or earlier, or matches any of these known affected versions: 3.0.551, 3.0.560, 3.0.563, 3.0.621, 3.0.642, 3.0.650, 3.0.657, 3.0.667, 3.0.669
  4. Check if the vulnerable device interface exists
    Open a command prompt with administrator privileges and run: winobj.exe (from Sysinternals) or use the command 'sc query epfw' to check if the driver service is running. The vulnerable interface \Device\Epfw exists when the driver is loaded
    Affected if The epfw driver service is running and the \Device\Epfw device is present in the system
  5. Verify the driver is loaded in kernel memory
    Open Command Prompt as administrator and run: 'driverquery /v | findstr epfw' to list driver information including status, or use 'sc query epfw' to query the driver service state
    Affected if The epfw driver shows as Running or Started in the output

If ESET Smart Security is installed with epfw.sys version 3.0.672 or earlier and the driver service is active, the system is affected by this vulnerability.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 3.0.672
Interim mitigation

Update ESET Smart Security to a version newer than 3.0.672 to obtain patched driver. Apply vendor-supplied security update for epfw.sys.

Fix this in Smart Security Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
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Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2008-5724 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data