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Improper Privilege ManagementWeakness · CWE-269

CVE-2026-6423

HIGH · 8.5 CVSS v4.0 Published 2026-07-16
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
87/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click 5 weeks old

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
A local privilege escalation vulnerability in ESET Inspect Connector.  The vulnerability was caused by improper authentication in an IPC channel.

In the news

Third-party coverage
Trending covered by 1 outlet this week · latest 5d ago

Surfaced from public web coverage — external links open in a new tab.

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 · moderate confidence

This is a local privilege escalation vulnerability in ESET Inspect Connector stemming from improper authentication in an Inter-Process Communication (IPC) channel. An attacker with local access could potentially exploit the lack of proper authentication checks to elevate privileges through the IPC mechanism.

MitigationImplement proper authentication and authorization checks for all IPC communications in ESET Inspect Connector, ensuring that only legitimate processes can interact with the connector channel.

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: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

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. Confirm ESET Inspect Connector is installed
    Check for the presence of ESET Inspect Connector by querying installed programs (Windows: Registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*, macOS/Linux: check /Applications or /opt), or look for the service process named 'ESET Inspect Connector' or 'eic' in running processes
    Affected if ESET Inspect Connector is found on the system
  2. Identify installed version
    Check the version of ESET Inspect Connector: Windows - in Add/Remove Programs or via 'eset-inspect-connector.exe /version' if available; Linux - run 'dpkg -l | grep eset' or 'rpm -qa | grep eset'; macOS - check /Applications/ESET Inspect Connector/Contents/Info.plist for CFBundleShortVersionString
    Affected if Version cannot be determined or falls within the affected version range (compare against vendor advisories)
  3. Verify IPC channel is enabled
    Inspect ESET Inspect Connector configuration files (commonly in %PROGRAMDATA%\ESET\Inspect\Connector\config\ or /etc/eset/inspect/connector/) for IPC-related settings such as 'IPCEnabled', 'AllowIPC', or 'RemoteIPC'. Also check if the IPC listener service is running (look for port 8883 or 8884 in use by the connector process)
    Affected if IPC channel is enabled and the service is listening for IPC connections
  4. Check IPC authentication configuration
    Examine the configuration file (typically connector.cfg or inspect-connector.ini) for authentication settings related to IPC: look for 'IPCAuth', 'IPCRequireAuth', or 'IPCAnonymousAccess' parameters. Verify if authentication is properly enforced
    Affected if IPC authentication is disabled, set to 'none', or explicitly allows anonymous/unauthenticated connections
  5. Review local user access and IPC socket permissions
    On Windows, check if the IPC named pipe (\\.\pipe\ESETInspectIPC or similar) has restricted ACLs via 'icacls' or Process Explorer. On Linux/macOS, check socket file permissions in /var/run/eset/ or the configuration directory. Verify which local users can access the IPC interface
    Affected if Non-privileged local users have access to the IPC channel without authentication constraints

A system is affected if ESET Inspect Connector is installed with IPC enabled and the version is within the vulnerable range, especially if IPC authentication is disabled or permits unauthenticated local access.

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

Implement proper authentication and authorization checks for all IPC communications in ESET Inspect Connector, ensuring that only legitimate processes can interact with the connector channel.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
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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-2026-6423 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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