dbcve.org
HubstaffApplication

CVE-2023-53937

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-12-18
No fix yet
No fix has been published. The vendor has not shipped a fixed release or patch. You remain exposed.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Public exploit 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
Hubstaff 1.6.14 contains a DLL search order hijacking vulnerability that allows attackers to replace a missing system32 wow64log.dll with a malicious library. Attackers can generate a custom DLL using Metasploit and place it in the system32 directory to obtain a reverse shell during application startup.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-427

The program loads a library or executable from a location an attacker can influence — a writable directory early in the search order — so a malicious file is loaded with the application's privileges. On Windows this is the classic DLL-hijack. Remediation is loading only from fully-qualified trusted paths and controlling the search order explicitly.

General guidance for the uncontrolled search path (dll hijack) class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
HubstaffApplication
Affected:= 1.6.13= 1.6.14

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

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
Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Latest version of Hubstaff beyond 1.6.14 (check vendor for specific fixed release number)

  1. Check the official Hubstaff website (hubstaff.com) or your organization's software update management system for the latest available version of Hubstaff.
  2. Verify that the latest version (typically versions higher than 1.6.14) includes a fix for the DLL search order hijacking vulnerability.
  3. If a newer version is available, download it from the official vendor source only (hubstaff.com) to ensure integrity.
  4. Uninstall the current version (1.6.13 or 1.6.14) through the standard Windows Programs and Features control panel.
  5. Install the latest stable version of Hubstaff that addresses the DLL hijacking vulnerability.
  6. Restart the system to ensure the new application loads cleanly.
  7. Verify the application functions normally after installation.
  8. Alternatively, if upgrading is not immediately possible, ensure the system32 directory is protected from unauthorized write access and monitor for any suspicious DLL files (especially wow64log.dll).
Caveat Standard upgrade risks apply - test the new version in a non-production environment first to ensure compatibility with your workflow and other software

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

No vendor fix exists Hubstaff has not published a patch for this.

There is no version to upgrade to and no patch to apply. Every affected install stays exposed until the vendor ships a fix — or somebody else builds one.

Add your voice

Free. We build fixes in the order the community asks for them — and we’ll tell you the moment this one lands.

Can’t wait

We develop and verify an original fix where the vendor hasn’t, from $1,950. Deployed to your staging first — never straight to production.

Scope it with us

See what else the community needs solved on the solutions-needed board.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-53937 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2023-53937 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