CVE-2011-5157
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 Attachmate Reflection before 14.1 SP1 allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse DLL in the current working directory, a related issue to CVE-2011-0107. NOTE: some of these details are obtained 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 · high confidenceUntrusted search path vulnerability in Attachmate Reflection allows local privilege escalation via DLL hijacking. The application loads DLLs from the current working directory before checking system directories, enabling an attacker to place a malicious Trojan horse DLL that executes with elevated privileges when the application runs.
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= 14.0= 14.1= 14.0= 14.1= 14.0= 14.1= 14.0= 14.1= 14.0= 14.1CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed Attachmate Reflection product and versionCheck Windows registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ or look in Program Files for Attachmate Reflection folders, then locate the executable (e.g., reflection.exe, reflectionx.exe) and check its properties for the version, or use 'wmic product get name,version' if availableAffected if Version is listed as 14.0 or 14.1 for any of the affected product lines (Reflection For Hp, Reflection For Ibm, Reflection For Regis Graphics Server, Reflection For Unix And Openvms, or Reflection X)
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Locate the application executableFind the main executable for the installed product - common paths include C:\Program Files\Attachmate\Reflection\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Attachmate\Reflection\ and look for executables like reflection.exe, reflectionibm.exe, reflectionx.exe, or rgserver.exeAffected if The executable exists and belongs to a version 14.0 or 14.1 installation
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Determine typical execution contextReview how users launch the application - check for shortcuts on desktop or start menu, and identify the working directory from which the application is typically run (right-click shortcut, select Properties, look at 'Start in' field)Affected if The application is launched from or can be run from a user-writable directory such as a shared network folder, download directory, or a folder where multiple users have write access
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Check for DLL search order vulnerabilityTest by placing a test DLL in various directories and running the application from those directories to observe if the application attempts to load the DLL from the current working directory before system directories. This can also be verified by monitoring DLL loads with Process Monitor (procmon.exe) from SysinternalsAffected if The application loads DLLs from the current working directory before checking system directories, which is the inherent behavior in vulnerable versions 14.0 and 14.1
You are affected if you have any Attachmate Reflection product version 14.0 or 14.1 installed and the application can be run from or loads DLLs from user-writable or untrusted directories.
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 dataUpdate to Attachmate Reflection version 14.1 SP1 or later which includes the fix for proper DLL search path handling. As a temporary workaround, ensure the application is never run from untrusted or user-writable directories.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2011-5157 — 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-2011-5157 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
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