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Trace Analyzer And CollectorApplication · Intel

CVE-2023-31197

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-05-12
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2020 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click

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 · unedited
Uncontrolled search path in the Intel(R) Trace Analyzer and Collector before version 2020 update 3 may allow an authenticated user to potentially enable escalation of privilege via local access.

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 · moderate confidence

Intel Trace Analyzer and Collector before version 2020 update 3 contains an uncontrolled search path vulnerability that allows an authenticated local user to escalate privileges by placing malicious DLLs or other executables in locations where the application searches for resources, potentially causing the application to load attacker-controlled code with elevated permissions.

MitigationUpdate to Intel Trace Analyzer and Collector version 2020 update 3 or later. As a workaround, ensure the application runs from trusted directories and review/remove untrusted locations from the system PATH environment variable.

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
Trace Analyzer And CollectorApplication
Affected:< 2020= 2020

CVSS 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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Intel Trace Analyzer and Collector installation
    Check for the product in typical installation directories such as C:\Program Files\Intel\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\, or search for executables named itac.exe or traceanalyzer.exe using 'Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Program Files* -Recurse -Filter itac.exe 2>$null'
    Affected if The product is found installed on the system
  2. Determine installed version
    Right-click the main executable (itac.exe or traceanalyzer.exe), select Properties, then view the Details tab for Product Version, or run 'itac.exe -version' from the installation bin directory if available
    Affected if The version is 2020 (any update) or any version before 2020
  3. Verify DLL search path exposure
    Review the application directory and parent directories for any locations writable by standard users. Use 'icacls [install_path]' to check permissions - look for 'BUILTIN\Users:(OI)(CI)' or similar write permissions for non-admin accounts
    Affected if Standard users have write access to directories in the application's search path
  4. Review PATH environment variable
    Examine system and user PATH variables for untrusted or user-writable directories using 'echo $env:PATH' or checking System Properties > Environment Variables
    Affected if The PATH contains directories that authenticated local users can modify

You are affected if Intel Trace Analyzer and Collector version 2020 or earlier is installed and the application searches for resources in directories writable by low-privilege users.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 2020 or later
Fixed in 2020
Interim mitigation

Update to Intel Trace Analyzer and Collector version 2020 update 3 or later. As a workaround, ensure the application runs from trusted directories and review/remove untrusted locations from the system PATH environment variable.

Recommended fix High confidence

2020 update 3

  1. Identify the current installed version of Intel Trace Analyzer and Collector
  2. Download Intel Trace Analyzer and Collector version 2020 update 3 or later from the official Intel download center
  3. Apply the update by running the installer or following Intel's standard update procedure for this product
  4. Verify the installation completed successfully and the version is 2020 update 3 or later

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Trace Analyzer And Collector Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,696.

Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-31197 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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