CVE-2018-6236
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 · uneditedA Time-of-Check Time-of-Use 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 0x222813 by the tmusa 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 confidenceA Time-of-Check Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) privilege escalation vulnerability in the tmusa driver of Trend Micro Maximum Security 2018 allows local attackers to elevate privileges by exploiting a flaw in processing IOCTL 0x222813. The attacker must first obtain low-privileged code execution on the target system before exploiting this driver vulnerability.
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
- High
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/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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Identify installed Trend Micro security productCheck Program Files for Trend Micro folders or check Windows Registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for Trend Micro entriesAffected if Any Trend Micro product from the affected list (Antivirus+, Internet Security, Maximum Security, Premium Security) is installed
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Determine installed product versionOpen the Trend Micro program from Start menu, go to About or Help section, or check the version in Windows Registry under the product's uninstall keyAffected if The version number is 12.0 or lower (any version <=12.0)
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Locate the tmusa driverCheck for tmusa.sys in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\ or use 'driverquery /v' command to list loaded drivers and search for tmusaAffected if The tmusa driver is present on the system
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Verify driver version against affected rangeRight-click tmusa.sys, select Properties, then check the Details tab for File Version, or use a PowerShell command like (Get-Item 'C:\Windows\System32\drivers\tmusa.sys').VersionInfoAffected if The driver version corresponds to a Trend Micro product version <=12.0
A system is affected if it runs any Trend Micro security product version 12.0 or lower with the tmusa driver present, and the attacker already has low-privileged code execution capability.
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 dataUpdate Trend Micro Maximum Security to the latest patched version to remediate the vulnerable tmusa driver. Prioritize updates on systems where low-privileged users have access.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,392.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-6236 — 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-2018-6236 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
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