CVE-2018-0597
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 Visual Studio Code 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 confidenceThe Visual Studio Code installer suffers from an untrusted search path vulnerability (DLL hijacking). During installation, the installer searches directories in an unsafe manner and loads DLLs without verifying their location, allowing an attacker to place a malicious Trojan horse DLL in a directory that gets searched, resulting in code execution with elevated privileges during the install process.
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 Visual Studio Code is installedCheck if Microsoft Visual Studio Code exists on the system. On Windows, look for the installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code or C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft VS Code) and verify the vscode.exe binary is present.Affected if Visual Studio Code is installed, indicating the vulnerable installer was likely run on the system.
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Inspect installation directory for unexpected DLL filesList all DLL files in the Visual Studio Code installation directory and compare against known legitimate VS Code DLLs. Look for any recently created or unfamiliar DLLs that may have been placed by an attacker.Affected if Unexpected or unknown DLL files are present in the VS Code installation directory.
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Check installation directory permissionsReview write permissions on the Visual Studio Code installation directory and parent directories. Verify that non-privileged users cannot write to directories in the DLL search path.Affected if The installation directory or directories in the system PATH are writable by unprivileged users.
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Examine directories in system PATH for suspicious DLLsReview all directories listed in the system PATH environment variable. Check each directory for DLL files that could be hijacked by the installer, especially common targets like msvcp140.dll, vcruntime140.dll, and other Visual C++ runtime DLLs.Affected if Any directory in the system PATH contains malicious DLLs that could have been loaded during installation.
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Check for evidence of privilege escalation during installReview system event logs and installation logs for any evidence of high-privilege process execution originating from user-writable directories around the time of VS Code installation.Affected if Logs show DLL loading from user-controlled directories during the installation timeframe.
If Visual Studio Code is installed and either the installation directory or any PATH directory was writable by attackers during installation, the system may have been compromised through this DLL hijacking vulnerability.
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 the vendor patch by downloading and installing the updated Visual Studio Code installer from official Microsoft channels. Ensure the installation directory is secured and monitor for any unauthorized DLLs in installation paths.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-0597 — 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-2018-0597 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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