CVE-2020-29654
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 · uneditedWestern Digital Dashboard before 3.2.2.9 allows DLL Hijacking that leads to compromise of the SYSTEM account.
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 confidenceWestern Digital Dashboard versions prior to 3.2.2.9 are vulnerable to DLL hijacking, where the application loads dynamic libraries from insecure locations. An attacker can place a malicious DLL in a location from which the application loads a library, achieving code execution with SYSTEM privileges due to the application's elevated 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< 3.2.2.9CVSS 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
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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 Western Digital Dashboard installationCheck for the presence of Western Digital Dashboard in standard installation locations such as Program Files, or look for its executable file (typically named Dashboard.exe or similar) on the systemAffected if The application is found installed on the system
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Identify the installed versionRight-click the Dashboard executable, select Properties, and inspect the Details tab for the File Version or Product Version field. Alternatively, right-click the executable in File Explorer, choose Properties, and locate version informationAffected if The displayed version number is lower than 3.2.2.9
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Verify application privilegesLaunch Western Digital Dashboard and check its process properties in Task Manager to see if it runs with elevated or administrator privilegesAffected if The application runs with elevated privileges (this increases the impact of the DLL hijacking)
If the installed Western Digital Dashboard version is below 3.2.2.9, the system is vulnerable to DLL hijacking with SYSTEM-level code execution.
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 data3.2.2.9
Update Western Digital Dashboard to version 3.2.2.9 or later. As an interim control, ensure the application directory and related paths are not writable by low-privilege users to prevent placement of malicious DLLs.
- Consultation1.0 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-2020-29654 — 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-2020-29654 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data