CVE-2015-7917
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 Open Automation OPC Systems.NET 8.00.0023 and earlier allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse DLL in an unspecified 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 confidenceOpen Automation OPC Systems.NET versions 8.00.0023 and earlier are vulnerable to an untrusted search path (DLL hijacking) vulnerability. The application loads DLLs from directories that may be writable by local users, allowing an attacker to place a malicious DLL that gets loaded with elevated privileges, achieving local privilege escalation.
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<= 8.00.0023CVSS 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
- High
- Privileges
- High
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
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 OPC Systems.NET installation location and versionLocate the OpcSystems.exe binary (typically in Program Files) and check its file properties for version information, or use registry keys under HKLM\SOFTWARE\OPC Systems if availableAffected if The installed version is 8.00.0023 or earlier
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Determine if the service runs with elevated privilegesCheck the Windows service configuration for OpcSystems.NET service using 'sc qc' command or through Services.msc, looking for the account it runs underAffected if The service runs as LocalSystem, a domain admin, or other privileged account
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Identify directories from which the application loads DLLsUse Process Monitor (procmon) from Sysinternals to capture DLL load activity for OpcSystems.exe, filtering by Operation equals 'CreateFile' and Result equals 'SUCCESS', then review the Path columnAffected if The application loads DLLs from user-writable locations such as the current working directory, temp folders, or application subdirectories with weak permissions
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Check permissions on the application directory and DLL search path locationsUse icacls or explore folder properties to inspect write permissions on the application directory and any directories in the DLL search orderAffected if Non-admin users have Write or Write-Execute permissions on directories from which DLLs are loaded
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Test for DLL hijacking vulnerabilityPlace a test DLL in a directory where the application loads from (identified in step 3) and observe if the application attempts to load it, using procmon to confirm CreateFile attempts on the test DLL nameAffected if The application loads a DLL from a directory writable by standard users
A defender is affected if OPC Systems.NET version 8.00.0023 or earlier is installed and runs with elevated privileges while loading DLLs from directories writable by local users.
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 dataRemediate by implementing secure DLL loading using full absolute paths, removing the current working directory from the DLL search order via SetDllDirectory or equivalent, and/or updating to a patched version if available from the vendor.
- Consultation6.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2015-7917 — 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-2015-7917 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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