CVE-2023-37537
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 · uneditedAn unquoted service path vulnerability in HCL AppScan Presence, deployed as a Windows service in HCL AppScan on Cloud (ASoC), may allow a local attacker to gain 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 confidenceThis is an unquoted service path vulnerability in HCL AppScan Presence when deployed as a Windows service in HCL AppScan on Cloud. The lack of quotes around the service's executable path allows a local attacker to place a malicious executable in an intermediate directory in the path, which will be executed with elevated (SYSTEM) privileges when the service starts.
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<= 2.1.37CVSS 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 HCL AppScan Presence service existsOpen Windows Services (services.msc) or run 'sc query' command and look for a service named 'HCL AppScan Presence' or similar presence-related serviceAffected if The service is present and running on the system
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Retrieve the service executable pathRun 'sc qc <service_name>' to query the service configuration, or use 'wmic service where "name like '%Appscan%'" get pathname,displayname' to retrieve the executable pathAffected if The service binary path is returned and contains spaces without quotes
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Verify if the service path is unquotedExamine theBINARY_PATH_NAME field from the service configuration. Check if the path contains spaces (e.g., C:\Program Files\HCL\AppScan\bin\presence.exe) and is NOT enclosed in quotation marksAffected if The path contains spaces and is not surrounded by double quotes
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Confirm product version is within affected rangeCheck the installed version of HCL AppScan Presence (typically via Add/Remove Programs, or by running 'presence.exe -v' if such option exists) and compare against <= 2.1.37Affected if The installed version is 2.1.37 or lower
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Check for exploitable intermediate directoriesIf the path is unquoted, list each directory in the path (e.g., C:\Program Files\HCL\AppScan\bin\) and verify file system permissions allowing write access to intermediate foldersAffected if A non-quoted path with writable intermediate directories exists, allowing potential privilege escalation
A user is affected if HCL AppScan Presence is installed as a Windows service with an unquoted executable path containing spaces and the version is 2.1.37 or lower.
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 dataThe service path in the Windows service configuration must be properly quoted (e.g., 'C:\Program Files\HCL\AppScan\bin\presence.exe' instead of C:\Program Files\HCL\AppScan\bin\presence.exe). This requires modifying the service definition and restarting the affected service.
- Consultation2.0 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-2023-37537 — 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-2023-37537 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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