CVE-2011-5153
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 · uneditedUntrusted search path vulnerability in FotoSlate 4.0 Build 146 allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse dwmapi.dll file in the current working directory, as demonstrated by a directory that contains a .plp file. NOTE: the provenance of this information is unknown; the details are obtained solely from third party information.
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 · low confidenceUntrusted search path (DLL hijacking) vulnerability in FotoSlate 4.0 Build 146 allows the application to load a malicious dwmapi.dll from the current working directory instead of system directories, enabling local privilege escalation when a user opens a .plp file from an attacker-controlled directory.
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= 4.0CVSS 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
- None
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:N
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Locate FotoSlate installationSearch for FotoSlate.exe in common program directories (C:\Program Files\ACD Systems or C:\Program Files (x86)\ACD Systems) or check the Windows registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for FotoSlate entriesAffected if FotoSlate 4.0 Build 146 is found installed on the system
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Verify exact versionRight-click FotoSlate.exe, select Properties, and check the Details tab for Product Version and File Version. Alternatively, run 'wmic product get name,version' or inspect the uninstall registry keyAffected if The installed version is exactly 4.0 (Build 146)
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Check .plp file associationLook for .plp file associations in the Windows registry under HKCR\.plp or HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes\.plp to see if FotoSlate is set as the handlerAffected if The system has .plp files associated with FotoSlate 4.0
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Inspect DLL loading behaviorOpen FotoSlate while monitoring DLL loads using Process Monitor (procmon.exe) from Sysinternals, filtering by process name FotoSlate.exe and operation Load Image, looking for dwmapi.dll loadsAffected if The application loads dwmapi.dll from the current working directory instead of System32
The user is affected if FotoSlate 4.0 Build 146 is installed and the application loads dwmapi.dll from the current working directory when opening .plp files.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataAvoid opening .plp files from untrusted or shared network directories. The vendor should implement secure DLL loading by specifying full paths to DLLs or enabling safe DLL search mode.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2011-5153 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2011-5153 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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