CVE-2019-3742
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 · uneditedDell/Alienware Digital Delivery versions prior to 3.5.2013 contain a privilege escalation vulnerability. A local non-privileged malicious user could exploit a named pipe that performs binary deserialization via a process hollowing technique to inject malicous code to run an executable with elevated 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 confidenceDell/Alienware Digital Delivery versions prior to 3.5.2013 contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability where a non-privileged attacker can exploit a named pipe that performs insecure binary deserialization combined with process hollowing to inject and execute malicious code with elevated (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< 3.5.2013>= 4.0.15.0, < 4.0.41CVSS 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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Identify if Dell or Alienware Digital Delivery is installedOpen Programs and Features (appwiz.cpl) or check the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ for entries containing 'Digital Delivery' or 'Dell Digital Delivery'Affected if The application appears in the installed programs list or registry
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Locate the installed version numberCheck the version in Programs and Features, or read the Version value from the registry key found in step 1, or right-click the executable at C:\Program Files\Dell Digital Delivery\Service\ and view Properties > DetailsAffected if A version number is retrieved
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Compare your version against the affected rangesCompare the installed version to the following vulnerable ranges: versions less than 3.5.2013, OR versions from 4.0.15.0 through 4.0.41 (excluding 4.0.41)Affected if The installed version falls within < 3.5.2013 or >= 4.0.15.0 and < 4.0.41
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Verify if the Digital Delivery service is runningOpen Services (services.msc) and look for 'Dell Digital Delivery' or 'DDDownloadService', or run: sc query DellDigitalDeliveryAffected if The service is present and running (even if affected version is installed, the vulnerability requires the service to be active)
You are affected if the installed version is less than 3.5.2013 or falls between 4.0.15.0 and 4.0.41, AND the Dell Digital Delivery service is currently running on your 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 data3.5.20134.0.41
Upgrade Dell/Alienware Digital Delivery to version 3.5.2013 or later; if the software is end-of-life and cannot be updated, uninstall the application and implement compensating controls such as restricting local access and monitoring for suspicious process activity.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-3742 — 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-2019-3742 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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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