Uncontrolled Search Path (DLL Hijack)Weakness · CWE-427

CVE-2023-31361

HIGH · 7.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-02-11
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
73/100
Remediation priority · Elevated

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
A DLL hijacking vulnerability in AMD Integrated Management Technology (AIM-T) Manageability Service could allow an attacker to achieve privilege escalation potentially resulting in arbitrary code execution.

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

A DLL hijacking vulnerability in AMD Integrated Management Technology (AIM-T) Manageability Service allows an attacker to plant a malicious DLL that gets loaded by the service, potentially leading to privilege escalation from any local user context to SYSTEM-level execution and arbitrary code execution.

MitigationApply the AMD-provided patch for AIM-T or remove unnecessary directories from the service's DLL search path; ensure the service uses secure DLL loading (e.g., explicit absolute paths) and monitor for unauthorized DLL placement in writable directories.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

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
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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 checks

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

  1. Verify AMD AIM-T installation
    Search for AMD Integrated Management Technology or AIM-T components on the system. On Windows, use 'Get-WmiObject Win32_Product' or check Add/Remove Programs for AMD software. Also check for service named 'AMMT' or similar AMD management service entries via 'sc query'.
    Affected if AMD AIM-T Manageability Service is installed on the system
  2. Confirm service is running
    Check if the AMD AIM-T service is currently active. Use 'sc query' for Windows services or 'tasklist /SVC' to view running services. Identify the process associated with the AIM-T service.
    Affected if The AIM-T Manageability Service is running as a background process
  3. Identify DLL search path
    Use process monitoring tools (such as Process Monitor from Sysinternals) to capture DLL load events for the AIM-T service. Examine the service's working directory and any paths in its DLL search order. Check service configuration via 'sc qc' and review any configured binary paths.
    Affected if The service loads DLLs from directories that are writable by non-privileged users or uses relative DLL paths without secure loading
  4. Audit writable directories
    Review file system permissions on directories in the service's DLL search path. Identify any directories writable by standard user accounts where a malicious DLL could be planted. Check both the service working directory and system PATH locations it may use.
    Affected if Writable directories exist in the service's DLL search path accessible to local users

The environment is affected if AMD AIM-T Manageability Service is installed, running, and uses a DLL search path that includes directories writable by non-administrator 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.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply the AMD-provided patch for AIM-T or remove unnecessary directories from the service's DLL search path; ensure the service uses secure DLL loading (e.g., explicit absolute paths) and monitor for unauthorized DLL placement in writable directories.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,490
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,984.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-31361 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-31361 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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