CVE-2016-4901
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 The installer of e-Tax Software all versions allows remote attackers 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 · moderate confidenceThe e-Tax Software installer suffers from an untrusted search path vulnerability (DLL hijacking) that allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges by placing a malicious DLL in a directory that the installer searches for DLLs during installation.
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 dataall versionsCVSS 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
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/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 if e-Tax Software is installedSearch for e-Tax or e-Tax Software in the system registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall or check common installation directoriesAffected if e-Tax Software is found on the system (all versions are affected)
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Locate the e-Tax installer executableSearch for installer files (setup.exe, installer MSI, or application executable) in installation directories or download locationsAffected if The installer executable exists on the system and can be run
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Check write permissions in DLL search directoriesIdentify directories in the installer's DLL search path (typically installation folder, system directories, and PATH locations) and verify write access for non-privileged usersAffected if Any directory in the DLL search path is writable by a low-privileged user, allowing DLL placement before or during installation
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Verify if installer runs with elevated privilegesCheck if the e-Tax installer is configured to run as administrator or requires UAC elevationAffected if The installer executes with elevated (administrator) privileges, which would cause any injected malicious DLL to run with those privileges
A system is affected if e-Tax Software or its installer is present and any directory in the installer's DLL search path is writable by non-privileged 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 dataOrganizations should identify and remove e-Tax Software installations until an official vendor patch is available, or implement strict directory access controls to prevent unauthorized DLL placement in directories searched by the installer.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-4901 — 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-2016-4901 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