CVE-2025-45095
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 · uneditedLavasoft Web Companion (also known as Ad-Aware WebCompanion) versions 8.9.0.1091 through 12.1.3.1037 installs the DCIService.exe service with an unquoted service path vulnerability. An attacker with write access to the file system could potentially execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges by placing a malicious executable in the unquoted path.
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 confidenceLavasoft Web Companion versions 8.9.0.1091 through 12.1.3.1037 install the DCIService.exe Windows service with an unquoted service path. This allows Windows to interpret spaces in the path as executable delimiters, enabling an attacker with filesystem write access to place a malicious executable that gets executed with elevated (SYSTEM) privileges when the service starts.
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
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
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 Lavasoft Web Companion is installedOpen Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\WebCompanion or check C:\Program Files\Lavasoft\Web Companion for existenceAffected if The application directory exists and contains Web Companion files
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Determine the installed Web Companion versionOpen Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel, find Lavasoft Web Companion, and note the version column; alternatively check the Version value in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\WebCompanionAffected if The installed version falls within 8.9.0.1091 through 12.1.3.1037 (inclusive)
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Verify DCIService exists as a Windows serviceOpen Command Prompt and run: sc queryex type= service state= all | findstr /i "DCIService"Affected if The DCIService is present in the list of installed services
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Inspect the service binary path for quotingRun: sc qc DCIService and examine the BINARY_PATH_NAME field; also run: wmic service where name="DCIService" get pathnameAffected if The binPath contains spaces and is NOT enclosed in quotation marks (e.g., C:\Program Files\Lavasoft\Web Companion\DCIService.exe instead of "C:\Program Files\Lavasoft\Web Companion\DCIService.exe")
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Verify the path contains spacesFrom the output of step 4, identify the directory path to DCIService.exe; confirm it includes a folder name with spaces (e.g., Program Files) and the path is unquotedAffected if The service path has at least one space in the directory portion and lacks surrounding quotes
You are affected if Lavasoft Web Companion version 8.9.0.1091 through 12.1.3.1037 is installed with the DCIService running from an unquoted path containing spaces.
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 dataReinstall the application to a path without spaces (e.g., C:\ProgramFiles\WebCompanion or C:\WebCompanion) or modify the service configuration to use a quoted path using the sc config command. If a patched version is available, upgrade to the fixed release.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-45095 — 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-2025-45095 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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