Uncontrolled Search Path (DLL Hijack)Weakness · CWE-427

CVE-2025-13051

CRITICAL · 9.3 CVSS v4.0 Published 2025-11-19
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
95/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
When the service of ABP and AES is installed in a directory writable by non-administrative users, an attacker can replace or plant a DLL with the same name as one loaded by the service. Upon service restart, the malicious DLL is loaded and executed under the LocalSystem account, resulting in unauthorized code execution with elevated privileges. This issue affects ABP and AES: from ABP 2.0 through 2.0.7.9050, from AES 1.0 through 1.0.6.8290.

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

A DLL hijacking vulnerability in ABP and AES services allows non-administrative users to write to the installation directory and plant a malicious DLL with the same name as one loaded by the service. When the service restarts, it loads the attacker-controlled DLL under the LocalSystem account, achieving privilege escalation to NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM.

MitigationRestrict write permissions on the service installation directory to only administrators, ensuring non-privileged users cannot modify or add DLLs. Consider reinstalling the service in a properly secured directory location with restricted permissions.

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
Authentication
X
User interaction
None
Scope
X

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/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

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 if ABP or AES services are installed
    Open Services console (services.msc) or run 'sc query' command to list all services. Look for service names containing 'ABP' or 'AES'.
    Affected if ABP or AES service exists on the system
  2. Locate the service executable path
    For each identified service, run 'sc qc <service_name>' to retrieve the binary path. Alternatively, use 'wmic service where "name like '%ABP%' or name like '%AES%'" get name,pathname'
    Affected if Service binary path is returned from the query
  3. Extract the service installation directory
    Parse the binary path from step 2 to isolate the directory (remove the executable filename). For example, if path is 'C:\Program Files\Vendor\ABP\service.exe', the directory is 'C:\Program Files\Vendor\ABP'
    Affected if Directory path is successfully extracted
  4. Check directory permissions for write access
    Right-click the installation directory, go to Properties > Security tab. Or run 'icacls "<directory_path>"' from command prompt to view ACLs.
    Affected if Non-administrative users or the 'Users' group are listed with Write or Full Control permissions
  5. Verify if standard user accounts can create files in the directory
    Attempt to create a test file using a standard (non-admin) user account, or review icacls output for (WD) or (F) permissions granted to non-admin SIDs
    Affected if Standard users can write files to the service installation directory

User is affected if ABP or AES service is installed and its installation directory grants write permissions to non-administrative users.

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.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Restrict write permissions on the service installation directory to only administrators, ensuring non-privileged users cannot modify or add DLLs. Consider reinstalling the service in a properly secured directory location with restricted permissions.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-13051 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-13051 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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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