CVE-2018-7715
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 · uneditedPrivateVPN 2.0.31 for macOS suffers from a root privilege escalation vulnerability with its com.privat.vpn.helper privileged helper tool. This privileged helper tool implements an XPC service that allows arbitrary installed applications to connect and send messages. The XPC service extracts the path string from the corresponding XPC message. This string is supposed to point to PrivateVPN's internal openvpn binary. If a new connection has not already been established, an attacker can send the XPC service a malicious XPC message with the path string pointing at a binary that he or she controls. This results in the execution of arbitrary code as the root user.
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 confidencePrivateVPN 2.0.31 for macOS contains a privileged helper tool (com.privat.vpn.helper) that implements an insecure XPC service. The XPC service accepts a path string from incoming messages intended to point to PrivateVPN's internal openvpn binary. If no VPN connection is active, an attacker can send a malicious XPC message with a path pointing to an attacker-controlled binary, resulting in arbitrary code execution with root 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= 2.0.31CVSS 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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 PrivateVPN installationCheck if PrivateVPN.app exists in /Applications/ or ~/Applications/ by listing the contents of those directoriesAffected if PrivateVPN.app is present on the system
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Identify installed PrivateVPN versionRight-click PrivateVPN.app, select 'Get Info', or run: defaults read /Applications/PrivateVPN.app/Contents/Info CFBundleVersion. Compare the version to 2.0.31Affected if The version is exactly 2.0.31
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Locate the privileged helper toolCheck for the existence of com.privat.vpn.helper in /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/ or ~/Library/Application Support/PrivateVPN/ using ls commandAffected if The file com.privat.vpn.helper exists in these locations
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Verify helper registrationCheck if the helper is registered with launchd by examining /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.privat.vpn.helper.plist or checking with: sudo launchctl list | grep privatAffected if The com.privat.vpn.helper plist file exists or the helper appears in launchctl list output
You are affected if PrivateVPN version 2.0.31 is installed AND the com.privat.vpn.helper privileged helper tool is present on the system.
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 PrivateVPN to a patched version once available. Until then, remove or disable the com.privat.vpn.helper privileged helper tool to prevent exploitation, or restrict system access to trusted users only.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing12.0 h
- Review / QA6.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $10,496.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-7715 — 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-2018-7715 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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