CVE-2018-6235
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 Out-of-Bounds write privilege escalation vulnerability in Trend Micro Maximum Security (Consumer) 2018 could allow a local attacker to escalate privileges on vulnerable installations due to a flaw within processing of IOCTL 0x222814 by the tmnciesc.sys driver. An attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system in order to exploit this vulnerability.
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 confidenceAn out-of-bounds write vulnerability in the tmnciesc.sys kernel-mode driver of Trend Micro Maximum Security 2018 allows local privilege escalation when processing IOCTL 0x222814. Attackers with low-privileged code execution can exploit this to gain SYSTEM-level 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 data<= 12.0<= 12.0<= 12.0<= 12.0CVSS 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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Verify Trend Micro security product installationCheck for installed Trend Micro security software in Add/Remove Programs or query the registry at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for entries containing 'Trend Micro'Affected if No Trend Micro product is found, the system is not affected by this specific vulnerability
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Confirm installed product versionLocate the installed Trend Micro product in the registry or program directory and read its version information - look for version 12.0 or lowerAffected if The installed version is 12.0 or lower, indicating an affected version of the product
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Check for tmnciesc.sys driver presenceSearch for tmnciesc.sys in the Trend Micro installation directory (commonly under C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Trend Micro\)Affected if The driver file exists on the system, confirming the vulnerable component is present
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Query driver file versionRight-click tmnciesc.sys, select Properties, then Details to view File Version; or run 'driverquery /v | findstr tmnciesc' from command promptAffected if The driver version corresponds to an unpatched version from before the CVE-2018-6235 fix, indicating vulnerability
A system is affected if it runs any Trend Micro product version 12.0 or lower with the tmnciesc.sys driver present, enabling the IOCTL 0x222814 vulnerability for local privilege escalation.
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 from Trend Micro to update the tmnciesc.sys driver to a patched version. Until patched, minimize attack surface by restricting local code execution opportunities.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-6235 — 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-2018-6235 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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