CVE-2018-6473
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 · uneditedIn SUPERAntiSpyware Professional Trial 6.0.1254, the driver file (SASKUTIL.SYS) allows local users to cause a denial of service (BSOD) or possibly have unspecified other impact because of not validating input values from IOCtl 0x9C402080.
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 confidenceThe SASKUTIL.SYS kernel-mode driver in SUPERAntiSpyware Professional Trial 6.0.1254 fails to validate input values received through IOCTL 0x9C402080. This allows local users to send specially crafted requests to the driver, causing a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) denial of service, or potentially achieving unspecified privilege escalation or other impact.
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= 6.0.1254CVSS 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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Check if SUPERAntiSpyware is installedOpen Control Panel > Programs and Features, or run 'Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion' in PowerShell to list installed programs and their versionsAffected if SUPERAntiSpyware is listed with version 6.0.1254 specifically
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Locate the SASKUTIL.SYS driver fileSearch for SASKUTIL.SYS on the system - typically found in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\ or the SUPERAntiSpyware installation directory. Use 'Get-ChildItem -Path C:\ -Recurse -Filter SASKUTIL.SYS -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue' or check the drivers folderAffected if The file SASKUTIL.SYS exists on the system
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Verify the driver versionRight-click the SASKUTIL.SYS file, select Properties > Details, or run 'Get-ItemProperty SASKUTIL.SYS.FullPath | Select-Object VersionInfo' in PowerShell to read the file versionAffected if The driver file version matches 6.0.1254 or the product version shows 6.0.1254
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Check if the driver is loadedOpen an elevated command prompt and run 'sc query saskutil' or 'driverquery /v | findstr saskutil' to query the driver service status, or check Device Manager for the driver under System DevicesAffected if The SASKUTIL driver service exists and is in a running state
You are affected if SUPERAntiSpyware version 6.0.1254 is installed and the SASKUTIL.SYS driver is present on the system, particularly if the driver is currently loaded.
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 vendor-supplied patch/update to SUPERAntiSpyware. As a kernel-mode driver vulnerability with local attack vector, consider limiting local user access to systems where this software is installed, or uninstall the trial version if not needed.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA5.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-6473 — 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-2018-6473 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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