CVE-2018-16183
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 · uneditedAn unquoted search path vulnerability in some pre-installed applications on Panasonic PC run on Windows 7 (32bit), Windows 7 (64bit), Windows 8 (64bit), Windows 8.1 (64bit), Windows 10 (64bit) delivered in or later than October 2009 allow local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse executable file and execute arbitrary code with eleveted privileges.
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 confidenceUnquoted service path vulnerability in pre-installed Panasonic PC applications. When Windows services use unquoted executable paths containing spaces, Windows attempts to execute each word in the path as a separate executable before finding the actual binary. Attackers can place malicious executables in earlier path components to achieve privilege escalation to SYSTEM level.
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 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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Identify if Panasonic System Interface services existOpen Command Prompt as Administrator and run: sc query type= service state= all | findstr /i "system interface"Affected if Output shows services named 'Panasonic System Interface Device 0021' or 'Panasonic System Interface Device 0040'
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Check service executable path configurationRun: reg query "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Panasonic System Interface Device 0021" /v ImagePath (repeat for 0040)Affected if The ImagePath value exists and contains a path with spaces that is NOT enclosed in quotation marks
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Verify path contains spaces and is unquotedExamine the ImagePath value retrieved from the registry. Look for paths containing spaces that lack surrounding quotes (e.g., C:\Program Files\Panasonic\... without quotes)Affected if The path contains one or more spaces and does not start and end with double quotes
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Confirm service runs with elevated privilegesRun: sc qc "Panasonic System Interface Device 0021" and check the START_TYPE and SERVICE_START_NAME fieldsAffected if The service is configured to start automatically (START_TYPE: AUTO_START) and runs as LocalSystem or a privileged account
A system is affected if either Panasonic System Interface Device 0021 or 0040 service is installed and its executable path contains unquoted spaces, allowing potential privilege escalation to SYSTEM level.
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 dataIdentify and quote the service executable paths in the Windows registry (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\) or remove the vulnerable pre-installed applications if not needed.
- Consultation3.0 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-2018-16183 — 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-2018-16183 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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