CVE-2018-0592
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 Microsoft OneDrive allows an attacker 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 confidenceOneDrive for Windows contains an untrusted search path vulnerability where it loads DLLs without proper path validation. An attacker with write access to a directory in the DLL search order can place a malicious DLL that OneDrive will load during execution, leading to privilege escalation from user to SYSTEM or higher 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 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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Verify OneDrive is installedCheck for OneDrive.exe in common installation paths: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\OneDrive\OneDrive.exe, %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft OneDrive\OneDrive.exe, or %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft OneDrive\OneDrive.exe. Also check Start Menu or system tray for OneDrive icon.Affected if OneDrive.exe exists on the system
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Identify OneDrive process and executable locationOpen Task Manager, find the OneDrive process, right-click and select 'Open file location'. This reveals which OneDrive.exe is currently running.Affected if OneDrive is running from a directory where an attacker could also write a DLL
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Audit write permissions on DLL search path directoriesCheck write permissions on: the current working directory when OneDrive launches, %SYSTEMROOT%\System32, %SYSTEMROOT%, and any directory in the PATH environment variable. Use icacls or review permissions in File Explorer.Affected if Any user without admin rights can write to directories in the Windows DLL search path used by OneDrive
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Check for suspicious DLLs in OneDrive launch directoryList all DLL files in the directory where OneDrive.exe is located. Look for recently created or unusually named DLLs that do not belong to OneDrive or Windows.Affected if Unexpected DLL files exist in the OneDrive executable directory
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Review OneDrive startup configurationCheck registry keys at HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run for OneDrive entries, or check shell:startup folder. Note the working directory at startup.Affected if OneDrive is configured to run at startup and the working directory is writable by standard users
A user is affected if OneDrive is installed and any directory in the Windows DLL search path (particularly the OneDrive executable directory or current working directory at startup) permits write access to unprivileged users, allowing placement of a malicious DLL.
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 dataApply vendor patches from Microsoft when available. In the interim, restrict write permissions to directories in the Windows DLL search path (current directory, system directories, PATH) to prevent unauthorized DLL placement, and monitor for suspicious DLL files in these locations.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-0592 — 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-2018-0592 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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