CVE-2024-9490
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 · uneditedDLL hijacking vulnerabilities, caused by an uncontrolled search path in Silicon Labs (8-bit) IDE installer can lead to privilege escalation and arbitrary code execution when running the impacted installer.
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 confidenceThe Silicon Labs (8-bit) IDE installer suffers from DLL hijacking due to an uncontrolled search path, allowing a malicious DLL to be loaded instead of a legitimate one during installation. Since installers typically run with elevated privileges, this enables privilege escalation and arbitrary code execution on the target system.
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
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/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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Check if Silicon Labs 8-bit IDE is installedSearch for the IDE installation directory, typically under Program Files or Program Files (x86), looking for folders named 'Silicon Labs' or 'Simplicity Studio' containing 8-bit IDE componentsAffected if The presence of Silicon Labs 8-bit IDE software indicates the vulnerable installer may have been used to install it
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Locate the Silicon Labs installer executableSearch for installer files such as setup.exe, installer.exe, or similar named after Silicon Labs 8-bit IDE in common download and installation directoriesAffected if Finding the original installer executable suggests it could be present and usable, exposing the system to the DLL hijacking flaw
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Inspect DLL search path behaviorRun the installer with process monitoring tools (such as Process Monitor) to observe which directories it searches for DLLs and whether it loads DLLs from the current working directoryAffected if The installer loads DLLs from directories in the search path that are writable by the user, indicating the uncontrolled search path vulnerability is present
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Verify DLL loading from untrusted locationsCheck if the installer or its components load DLLs from the directory where the installer resides or from user-writable locations rather than only system directoriesAffected if DLLs are being loaded from locations outside protected system directories, confirming the DLL hijacking condition exists
A user is affected if they have installed or plan to install Silicon Labs 8-bit IDE using an unpatched installer that exhibits uncontrolled DLL search path behavior, allowing potential privilege escalation during the installation process.
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 vendor should remediate by securing the DLL search path (removing current directory from search order, using fully qualified paths, and/or using Safe DLL Load API), rebuilding and redistributing the installer, and users should obtain the patched installer from official sources.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-9490 — 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-2024-9490 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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