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Security AppscanApplication · Ibm

CVE-2013-0513

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v2.0 Published 2013-03-29
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
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
IBM Security AppScan Enterprise 5.6 and 8.x before 8.7 and IBM Rational Policy Tester 5.6 and 8.x before 8.5.0.4 create a service that lacks " (double quote) characters in the service path, which allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse program, related to an "Unquoted Service Path Enumeration" vulnerability.

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 Unquoted Service Path Enumeration vulnerability where IBM Security AppScan Enterprise and IBM Rational Policy Tester create Windows services without properly quoting the executable path. When a service path contains spaces and lacks quotes, Windows attempts to execute files in intermediate directories before finding the actual executable, allowing a local attacker to place a malicious program in such a directory and achieve privilege escalation when the service restarts.

MitigationIdentify the vulnerable service paths in affected installations, either by patching to the fixed versions (AppScan 8.7+, Policy Tester 8.5.0.4+) or by manually adding double quotes around the service executable path in the Windows service configuration, while ensuring no untrusted users have write access to any directory in the service path.

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
Security AppscanApplication
Affected:= 5.6.0.0= 8.0.0.0= 8.0.0.1= 8.0.0.2= 8.0.1.0= 8.0.1.1= 8.0.11= 8.5.0.0= 8.5.0.1= 8.6.0.0= 8.6.0.1= 8.6.0.2
Rational Policy TesterApplication
Affected:= 5.6.0.0= 8.0.0.0= 8.0.0.1= 8.0.0.2= 8.0.1.0= 8.0.1.1= 8.5.0.0= 8.5.0.1= 8.5.0.2= 8.5.0.3

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. Identify installed IBM security products
    Check for IBM Security AppScan or IBM Rational Policy Tester installation directories (e.g., C:\Program Files\IBM\AppScan, C:\Program Files\IBM\Rational Policy Tester) or look in Windows registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for entries containing 'AppScan' or 'Rational Policy Tester'
    Affected if Either product is found on the system
  2. Determine installed version
    Locate version information in the product's installation directory (typically in an About or version file) or check the Windows registry uninstall entry for the product's version string
    Affected if The installed version matches one of the affected versions listed in the CVE (AppScan 5.6.0.0 through 8.6.0.2, or Policy Tester 5.6.0.0 through 8.5.0.3)
  3. Find related Windows services
    Run 'sc query type= service state= all' to list all services, then filter for services with names containing 'AppScan' or 'Policy Tester' or 'Rational'
    Affected if Services created by either affected product are found on the system
  4. Inspect service executable path for unquoted spaces
    For each identified service, run 'sc qc <service_name>' and examine the BINARY_PATH_NAME field; check if the path contains spaces and is not enclosed in double quotes
    Affected if The service path contains spaces and lacks surrounding quotes (e.g., path is C:\Program Files\IBM\AppScan\bin\scanner.exe instead of "C:\Program Files\IBM\AppScan\bin\scanner.exe")

A user is affected if IBM Security AppScan (versions 5.6.0.0-8.6.0.2) or IBM Rational Policy Tester (versions 5.6.0.0-8.5.0.3) is installed with Windows services that have unquoted executable paths containing spaces.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Identify the vulnerable service paths in affected installations, either by patching to the fixed versions (AppScan 8.7+, Policy Tester 8.5.0.4+) or by manually adding double quotes around the service executable path in the Windows service configuration, while ensuring no untrusted users have write access to any directory in the service path.

Fix this in Security Appscan Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
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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-2013-0513 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