dbcve.org
Incorrect Default PermissionsWeakness · CWE-276

CVE-2024-54131

HIGH · 7.3 CVSS v4.0 Published 2024-12-03
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
75/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click Patch available

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
The Kolide Agent (aka: Launcher) is the lightweight agent designed to work with Kolide's service. An implementation bug in the Kolide Agent (known as `launcher`) allows for local privilege escalation to the SYSTEM user on Windows 10 and 11. The bug was introduced in version 1.5.3 when launcher started storing upgraded binaries in the ProgramData directory. This move to the new directory meant the launcher root directory inherited default permissions that are not as strict as the previous location. These incorrect default permissions in conjunction with an omitted SystemDrive environmental variable (when launcher starts osqueryd), allows a malicious actor with access to the local Windows device to successfully place an arbitrary DLL into the osqueryd process's search path. Under some circumstances, this DLL will be executed when osqueryd performs a WMI query. This combination of events could then allow the attacker to escalate their privileges to SYSTEM. Impacted versions include versions >= 1.5.3 and the fix has been released in 1.12.3.

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-276

Files, directories, or resources ship with permissions more open than they need to be, so unintended users can read or modify them. Attackers look for exactly these loose defaults. Remediation means tightening permissions to the minimum required and verifying them at install and at runtime.

General guidance for the incorrect default permissions class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
Authentication
X
User interaction
None
Scope
X

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

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
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

1.12.3

  1. 1. Identify the currently installed Kolide Launcher version by checking the launcher executable or service configuration
  2. 2. Navigate to the official Kolide Launcher releases page or GitHub repository
  3. 3. Download the fixed version 1.12.3 (or the latest version that includes the fix)
  4. 4. Follow Kolide's standard upgrade procedure to replace the existing launcher installation with version 1.12.3
  5. 5. Verify the upgrade was successful and the launcher service is running correctly
  6. 6. Confirm the ProgramData directory permissions have been corrected in the updated version

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

We can apply and verify the patch for your build — typical engagement from $1,250. Get the patch applied

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-54131 — 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-2024-54131 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