CVE-2017-3756
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 · uneditedA privilege escalation vulnerability was identified in Lenovo Active Protection System for ThinkPad systems versions earlier than 1.82.0.17. An attacker with local privileges could execute code with administrative privileges via an unquoted service path.
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 confidenceLenovo Active Protection System for ThinkPad versions prior to 1.82.0.17 contains an unquoted service path vulnerability. A local attacker with standard user privileges can place a malicious executable in a path segment that gets resolved before the intended service binary, achieving code execution with administrative/system privileges.
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 versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall 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
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/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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Check if Lenovo Active Protection System is installedOpen Windows Registry and navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ or check Program Files for Lenovo\APS folder. Alternatively, open Services.msc and look for a service named 'Lenovo Active Protection System' or similar.Affected if The software is not found or the service does not exist in the system.
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Identify the installed version of Lenovo Active Protection SystemIn the Windows Registry under the uninstall key for Lenovo APS, check the DisplayVersion value. Or right-click the service in Services.msc, select Properties, and note the service name and executable path.Affected if The installed version is lower than 1.82.0.17 or no version information is returned.
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Inspect the service binary path for unquoted spacesRun 'sc qc <service_name>' in Command Prompt (replace <service_name> with the actual Lenovo APS service name found in Services.msc). Examine the BINARY_PATH_NAME field.Affected if The BINARY_PATH_NAME contains spaces and is not enclosed in quotation marks, for example: C:\Program Files\Lenovo\AP\aps.exe instead of "C:\Program Files\Lenovo\AP\aps.exe".
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Verify the service runs with elevated privilegesIn Services.msc, right-click the Lenovo APS service, go to Properties, and check the 'Log on as' account. It typically runs as Local System or a similar privileged account.Affected if The service runs as Local System, Local System account, or another administrator-level account.
A system is affected if Lenovo Active Protection System is installed with a version prior to 1.82.0.17 and the service binary path in the Windows service configuration contains unquoted spaces while running with elevated privileges.
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 dataUpgrade Lenovo Active Protection System to version 1.82.0.17 or later, which addresses the unquoted service path issue.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 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-2017-3756 — 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-2017-3756 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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