Archive DecoderApplication · Ponsoftware

CVE-2010-3160

MEDIUM · 6.9 CVSS v2.0 Published 2010-10-25
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 1.23 or later.
See remediation →
74/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
Untrusted search path vulnerability in Archive Decoder 1.23 and earlier allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse executable file in the current working directory.

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

This is an untrusted search path vulnerability in Archive Decoder 1.23 and earlier. The application loads executable files from the current working directory instead of using absolute paths, allowing a local attacker to place a Trojan horse executable in a directory and trick a privileged user into running Archive Decoder from that location, resulting in privilege escalation.

MitigationRun Archive Decoder only from trusted directories with secure working directory hygiene, and update to a patched version when available. Prefer running applications from controlled directories and avoid launching software from world-writable locations.

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
Archive DecoderApplication
Affected:<= 1.23= 1.00= 1.01= 1.02= 1.03= 1.04= 1.05= 1.06= 1.07= 1.08= 1.09= 1.11

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
M
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:L/AC:M/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 Archive Decoder is installed
    Locate the Archive Decoder executable on the system. Check common installation directories or search for files named 'Archive Decoder' or similar executables from Ponsoftware.
    Affected if Archive Decoder executable is found on the system
  2. Determine the installed version
    Right-click the executable, select Properties, and check the Version tab. Alternatively, run the executable with a version flag if supported (such as --version or -v).
    Affected if The version is 1.23 or earlier, or matches any of these: 1.00, 1.01, 1.02, 1.03, 1.04, 1.05, 1.06, 1.07, 1.08, 1.09, 1.11
  3. Verify the untrusted search path behavior
    Attempt to run Archive Decoder from a directory where you have write permissions. Observe whether the application attempts to load executables from that current directory rather than using absolute paths.
    Affected if The application loads or attempts to load executables from the current working directory instead of using fully qualified paths

The environment is affected if Archive Decoder version 1.23 or earlier is installed and is being run, as the vulnerability is inherent to these versions due to the untrusted search path behavior.

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 1.23
Interim mitigation

Run Archive Decoder only from trusted directories with secure working directory hygiene, and update to a patched version when available. Prefer running applications from controlled directories and avoid launching software from world-writable locations.

Fix this in Archive Decoder Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,490
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2010-3160 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

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-2010-3160 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