CVE-2018-0594
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 Skype for Windows 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 · moderate confidenceThis is a DLL hijacking (untrusted search path) vulnerability in Skype for Windows. The application loads dynamic link libraries from an unspecified directory that an attacker can control, allowing a malicious Trojan horse DLL to be executed with Skype's privileges, resulting in 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 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 Skype installationCheck for Skype executable (Skype.exe) in the system. Use Task Manager or run 'wmic product get name,version' or check 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Skype.exe' in the registry.Affected if Skype is installed on the system.
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Identify Skype launch locationCheck the directory from which Skype is being executed. Use Task Manager to view the process path, or run 'wmic process where "name='Skype.exe'" get executablepath' to find where the .exe resides.Affected if Skype is launched from a user-writable or unsecured directory (e.g., Downloads, Desktop, or untrusted network paths).
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Check current working directory at launchMonitor or inspect the current working directory (CWD) when Skype starts. Use Process Explorer or attach a debugger to observe which directory Skype searches for DLLs from.Affected if The working directory at Skype launch time is writable by the current user or accessible to untrusted parties, allowing placement of malicious DLLs.
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Inspect DLL loading behaviorUse Sysinternals Process Monitor (procmon) with a filter for Skype.exe and Operation=LoadImage to observe which DLLs Skype attempts to load and from which paths.Affected if Skype loads DLLs from directories outside of its installed Program Files location, particularly from the launch or working directory.
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Review directory permissionsRight-click the directory from which Skype is launched, go to Properties > Security, and verify that untrusted users cannot write files to that location.Affected if Non-admin users or attacker-controlled accounts have Write or Modify permissions to the directory where Skype is launched from.
A user is affected if Skype is launched from a directory that is writable by untrusted users, allowing an attacker to place a malicious DLL that Skype will load 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 dataEnsure Skype is launched from a secure, controlled directory and implement application whitelisting (e.g., AppLocker) to prevent arbitrary DLL loading. Users should also ensure Skype is updated once a vendor patch becomes available.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-0594 — 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-2018-0594 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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