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Improper Privilege ManagementWeakness · CWE-269

CVE-2024-31498

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-04-04
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable 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
Yubico ykman-gui (aka YubiKey Manager GUI) before 1.2.6 on Windows, when Edge is not used, allows privilege escalation because browser windows can open as Administrator.

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 confidence

YubiKey Manager GUI (ykman-gui) versions before 1.2.6 on Windows contain a privilege escalation vulnerability where browser windows launched by the application can open with Administrator privileges when a browser other than Microsoft Edge is used as the default. This allows an attacker who has already gained user-level code execution to potentially escalate to administrator-level privileges by tricking the application into spawning a privileged browser process.

MitigationUpdate ykman-gui to version 1.2.6 or later. As a compensating control, ensure Edge is set as the default browser until the patch is applied.

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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 ykman-gui installation and version
    Search for ykman-gui.exe in typical installation directories such as C:\Program Files\YubiKey Manager or C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Programs\yubikey-manager-gui, then right-click the executable, select Properties, and examine the File version on the Details tab
    Affected if The installed version is found to be below 1.2.6
  2. Confirm ykman-gui is present on the system
    Open Windows PowerShell and run Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\Program Files','C:\Program Files (x86)',"$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs" -Recurse -Filter 'ykman-gui.exe' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue to locate the executable
    Affected if No ykman-gui.exe is found, meaning the application is not installed and this CVE does not apply
  3. Determine the default web browser
    Open Windows Settings > Apps > Default apps > Web browser, or run PowerShell command Get-ItemProperty -Path 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\UrlAssociations\http\UserChoice' | Select-Object -ExpandProperty ProgId to see which browser is set as default
    Affected if The default browser shown is anything other than Microsoft Edge (for example, Chrome, Firefox, or Brave)
  4. Assess combined exposure
    Review the results from the version check and default browser check together - both conditions must be true for the vulnerability to be exploitable in this scenario
    Affected if The ykman-gui version is below 1.2.6 AND the default browser is NOT Microsoft Edge - this combination creates the privilege escalation path where spawned browser windows inherit administrator privileges

A system is affected only if ykman-gui version is below 1.2.6 AND a non-Edge browser is set as the default, allowing the application to spawn elevated browser windows that an attacker with user-level access could exploit for privilege escalation.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update ykman-gui to version 1.2.6 or later. As a compensating control, ensure Edge is set as the default browser until the patch is applied.

Recommended fix High confidence

1.2.6

  1. Download YubiKey Manager GUI (ykman-gui) version 1.2.6 or later from the official Yubico website (www.yubico.com)
  2. Uninstall the current version of ykman-gui from Windows via Control Panel > Programs and Features
  3. Run the installer for the newly downloaded version 1.2.6 or later
  4. Follow the installation wizard prompts to complete the installation
  5. Verify the installed version is 1.2.6 or later by checking ykman-gui > Help > About

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

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation0.5 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA0.5 h
3.0 hours of engineering $750
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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-2024-31498 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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
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