CVE-2024-9157
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** UNSUPPORTED WHEN ASSIGNED ** A privilege escalation vulnerability in CxUIUSvc64.exe and CxUIUSvc32.exe of Synaptics audio drivers allows a local authorized attacker to load a DLL in a privileged process. Out of an abundance of caution, this CVE ID is being assigned to better serve our customers and ensure all who are still running this product understand that the product is End-of-Life and should be removed. For more information on this, refer to the CVE Record’s reference information.
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 confidenceA DLL planting vulnerability in Synaptics audio driver services (CxUIUSvc64.exe and CxUIUSvc32.exe) allows a local authenticated attacker to place a malicious DLL that gets loaded by a privileged Windows service, resulting in privilege escalation to SYSTEM level.
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
- 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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Locate the vulnerable Synaptics service executablesSearch for CxUIUSvc64.exe and CxUIUSvc32.exe on the system using file search (e.g., Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Filter 'CxUIUSvc*.exe' C:\ -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue or dir /s C:\CxUIUSvc*.exe)Affected if Either executable is found on the system, indicating the vulnerable Synaptics audio driver service software is installed
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Identify if the Synaptics service is registered and runningOpen Services console (services.msc) and look for any Synaptics-related audio service, or run 'sc query type= service' and check for Synaptics entriesAffected if A Synaptics audio service (typically named something like 'Synaptics Audio Service' or similar) is present in the service list, regardless of running state
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Check the file location and directory permissionsRight-click the found CxUIUSvc*.exe file, select Properties, then check the Location path. Verify folder permissions by right-clicking the parent folder, selecting Properties, then Security, and checking if standard users have Write permission to that directoryAffected if The executable resides in a directory where standard authenticated users have Write permissions, enabling DLL planting
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Verify if the service executes with elevated privilegesOpen Task Manager, enable 'Show processes from all users', look for CxUIUSvc64.exe or CxUIUSvc32.exe, right-click and select 'Run as different user' or check the process properties for the user context. Alternatively, run 'wmic process where "name='CxUIUSvc64.exe'" get name, executablepath, sessionid'Affected if The service process runs under a higher-privilege account (such as SYSTEM, LocalSystem, or an administrator account), which would allow a planted malicious DLL to execute with elevated privileges
The system is affected if either CxUIUSvc64.exe or CxUIUSvc32.exe from Synaptics audio driver services is present and the containing directory allows standard users write access, enabling DLL planting for privilege escalation.
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 dataThis is an End-of-Life product with no vendor patch available; the affected software should be completely removed from all systems. If immediate removal is not feasible, restrict write access to the service directory and monitor for unauthorized DLL loading.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-9157 — 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-2024-9157 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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- 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
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