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Enterprise VirtualizationApplication · Redhat

CVE-2013-2151

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v2.0 Published 2014-01-21
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
Unquoted Windows search path vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) 3 and 3.2 allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted application in an unspecified folder.

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

Unquoted Windows service path vulnerability in RHEV 3/3.2 allows local privilege escalation. When service executable paths contain spaces and are unquoted, Windows searches intermediate directories for executables. An attacker can place a malicious executable in such a directory to achieve privilege escalation when the service restarts.

MitigationQuote all service executable paths in Windows registry to prevent path traversal. Restrict write access to directories in service paths to trusted administrators only.

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
Enterprise VirtualizationApplication
Affected:= 3.0= 3.2

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 RHEV Windows services
    Open Registry Editor and navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services, or run 'sc query type= service state= all' in Command Prompt to list all installed services. Look for service names related to RHEV (e.g., ovirt-engine, vdsm, or similar Red Hat virtualization services).
    Affected if Any RHEV-related Windows services are installed on the system.
  2. Check service executable paths in registry
    For each RHEV service found, examine the ImagePath value under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\<ServiceName>. This registry value contains the full path to the service executable.
    Affected if The ImagePath value exists and points to an executable located in the Program Files directory or other paths containing spaces.
  3. Verify if paths are quoted
    Inspect the ImagePath value for quotation marks. A properly quoted path would appear as: "C:\Program Files\RHEV\bin\service.exe". An unquoted path would appear as: C:\Program Files\RHEV\bin\service.exe
    Affected if The ImagePath value does not contain opening and closing quotation marks around the full executable path.
  4. Identify intermediate directories in unquoted paths
    If the path contains spaces and is unquoted, parse the path to identify each directory component. For example, C:\Program Files\RHEV\bin\service.exe has intermediate directories: C:\Program Files\ and C:\Program Files\RHEV\
    Affected if The service path contains one or more spaces and lacks quotation marks, creating intermediate directories that Windows will search for executables.
  5. Check write permissions on intermediate directories
    Right-click each intermediate directory in Windows Explorer, select Properties, go to the Security tab, and review the permissions. Alternatively, use icacls from Command Prompt: icacls "C:\Program Files\RHEV"
    Affected if Any non-admin user account has Write or Write+Execute permissions to an intermediate directory in the service path, allowing placement of a malicious executable.

A user is affected if RHEV Windows services are installed with unquoted paths containing spaces and non-admin users have write access to intermediate directories in those paths.

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

Quote all service executable paths in Windows registry to prevent path traversal. Restrict write access to directories in service paths to trusted administrators only.

Fix this in Enterprise Virtualization Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,690
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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-2013-2151 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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