CVE-2019-3567
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 some configurations an attacker can inject a new executable path into the extensions.load file for osquery and hard link a parent folder of a malicious binary to a folder with known 'safe' permissions. Under those circumstances osquery will load said malicious executable with SYSTEM permissions. The solution is to migrate installations to the 'Program Files' directory on Windows which restricts unprivileged write access. This issue affects osquery prior to v3.4.0.
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 confidenceIn certain Windows configurations, an attacker with low-privilege access can modify the extensions.load configuration file to point to a malicious executable. By exploiting hard links to associate the malicious binary with a folder having trusted permissions, osquery loads and executes the malicious code with SYSTEM privileges. This privilege escalation occurs because the vulnerable osquery installations were not in the protected 'Program Files' directory.
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< 3.4.0CVSS 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
- Network
- Complexity
- High
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/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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Confirm osquery is installed on WindowsSearch for osquery.exe in common installation directories (e.g., C:\Program Files\osquery, C:\Program Files (x86)\osquery, C:\osquery) or check the Windows registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\osquery for the InstallLocation keyAffected if osquery is found installed on the Windows system
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Identify the installed osquery versionRun 'osqueryi --version' or 'osqueryd --version' from the installation directory, or read the version from the executable propertiesAffected if The version number is less than 3.4.0 (e.g., 3.3.2, 3.3.0, etc.)
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Verify the installation directory locationCheck the parent folder of the osquery.exe binary. Confirm whether it resides within the protected 'Program Files' or 'Program Files (x86)' directories, or in an unprotected location such as C:\osquery or a user-writable folderAffected if osquery is installed outside the 'Program Files' directory (e.g., in C:\osquery, C:\Tools\osquery, or a non-standard path)
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Locate and inspect the extensions.load configuration fileIn the osquery installation directory, find the configuration file named extensions.load (typically in C:\ProgramData\osquery or the installation folder) and open it with a text editor to review its contentsAffected if The extensions.load file exists and contains entries pointing to executable paths outside the installation directory, or paths that could be modified by low-privilege users
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Check file permissions on the osquery configuration directoryRight-click the osquery installation folder (or C:\ProgramData\osquery), select Properties, go to the Security tab, and verify which users or groups have Write or Modify permissions on the folder and its configuration filesAffected if Low-privilege users (non-administrators) have Write or Modify access to the osquery configuration directory or the extensions.load file
A Windows system is affected if osquery version is below 3.4.0 AND the installation resides outside the protected Program Files directory with writable configuration files accessible to low-privilege users.
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 data3.4.0
Upgrade osquery to v3.4.0 or later and migrate the installation to the Windows 'Program Files' directory to enforce proper permission restrictions that prevent unprivileged modification of configuration files and extension paths.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-3567 — 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-2019-3567 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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