CVE-2019-12808
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 · uneditedALTOOLS update service 18.1 and earlier versions contains a local privilege escalation vulnerability due to insecure permission. An attacker can overwrite an executable that is launched as a service to exploit this vulnerability and execute arbitrary code with system 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 confidenceThe ALTOOLS update service versions 18.1 and earlier contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability due to insecure file permissions on the service executable. An attacker with low-privilege access can overwrite the service binary and restart the service to execute arbitrary code with SYSTEM 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<= 18.1CVSS 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:3.1/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 Estsoft Altools is installedLook for Altools in Program Files (usually C:\Program Files\ESTsoft\ALTools or similar), check Add/Remove Programs, or look for ALTOOLS service in Windows Services (services.msc)Affected if Altools is found on the system
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Find the ALTOOLS update service executableOpen services.msc, locate the ALTOOLS update service, right-click and select Properties, note the path to the executable (typically in the Altools installation directory)Affected if A service named ALTOOLS or similar update service exists and points to an executable
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Verify the installed Altools versionRight-click the service executable, go to Details tab to see File Version, or check the version in Add/Remove Programs, or right-click the main ALTools.exe and check PropertiesAffected if The version is 18.1 or earlier (or if version cannot be determined but Altools is present pre-18.2)
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Examine file permissions on the service executableRight-click the service executable file, select Properties, go to the Security tab, click Advanced. Check the Permissions entries for each user/group. Specifically look for Write or Write.Attributes permissions granted to Users, Authenticated Users, or other non-admin groupsAffected if Any user or group other than Administrators and SYSTEM has Write or Full Control permissions on the service executable
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Verify if low-privilege users can modify the service executableUsing icacls from command line (icacls "C:\path\to\ALTOOLSservice.exe") examine the output. Look for flags like (F) Full Control, (M) Modify, or (W) Write assigned to Users, Everyone, or similar low-privilege principalsAffected if Low-privilege users or groups (Users, Authenticated Users, etc.) have Write, Modify, or Full Control access to the service executable file
The system is affected if Estsoft Altools version 18.1 or earlier is installed AND the ALTOOLS service executable has overly permissive file permissions allowing non-admin users to write to it, enabling potential privilege escalation to 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 dataRestrict file permissions on the ALTOOLS service executable to allow write access only for Administrators and SYSTEM account; remove any unnecessary user or group permissions; verify file integrity on service restart.
- Consultation2.0 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-2019-12808 — 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-2019-12808 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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