CVE-2017-18019
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 · uneditedIn K7 Total Security before 15.1.0.305, user-controlled input to the K7Sentry device is not sufficiently sanitized: the user-controlled input can be used to compare an arbitrary memory address with a fixed value, which in turn can be used to read the contents of arbitrary memory. Similarly, the product crashes upon a \\.\K7Sentry DeviceIoControl call with an invalid kernel pointer.
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 confidenceK7 Total Security contains a kernel-mode driver vulnerability in K7Sentry where user-controlled input to the device is not properly sanitized. This allows an attacker to compare arbitrary memory addresses with fixed values and read arbitrary kernel memory, plus causes crashes when invalid kernel pointers are passed via DeviceIoControl.
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< 15.1.0.305CVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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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Verify K7 Total Security is installedCheck for K7 Total Security in the Windows registry at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ or look in Program Files for K7 Computing folderAffected if K7 Total Security is not found on the system, this CVE does not apply
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Find the installed version of K7 Total SecurityOpen Windows Registry and locate the version string at HKLM\SOFTWARE\K7 Computing\Product\Version or right-click the K7 icon in system tray and select About to view version informationAffected if Unable to determine version, cannot assess vulnerability status
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Compare installed version against the vulnerable rangeCompare the discovered version number to 15.1.0.305 - any version lower than 15.1.0.305 is affectedAffected if Installed version starts with a number lower than 15.1.0.305 (e.g., 15.0.x.x, 14.x.x.x) - the system is vulnerable
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Confirm K7Sentry driver presenceOpen Command Prompt as Administrator and run 'sc query K7Sentry' or check Device Manager for hidden devices to see if the K7Sentry kernel driver is loaded on the systemAffected if K7Sentry driver is present and loaded - the vulnerable driver component is active on this system
The system is affected by CVE-2017-18019 if K7 Total Security is installed with version lower than 15.1.0.305 and the K7Sentry kernel driver is present on the system.
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 data15.1.0.305
Update K7 Total Security to version 15.1.0.305 or later to obtain the vendor patch that properly sanitizes input to the K7Sentry device driver.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-18019 — 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-2017-18019 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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