Security Bulletin: IBM QRadar WinCollect Agent is vulnerable to a local escalation of privilege attack in some configurations (CVE-2023-38736)

Summary

IBM QRadar WinCollect Agent when installed to run as Admin or System, or with Admin or System privileges, is vulnerable to a local escalation of privilege attack that a non-privileged user could utilize to gain System permissions. IBM has addressed the relevant vulnerability.

Vulnerability Details

CVEID:CVE-2023-38736
**DESCRIPTION:**IBM QRadar WinCollect Agent, when installed to run as ADMIN or SYSTEM, is vulnerable to a local escalation of privilege attack that a normal user could utilize to gain SYSTEM permissions.
CVSS Base score: 7.5
CVSS Temporal Score: See: https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/262542 for the current score.
CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H)

Affected Products and Versions

Remediation/Fixes

IBM recommends customers upgrade their systems promptly.

There is a new upgrade for the WinCollect standalone agent. The following WinCollect standalone agent versions can be used to upgrade the affected versions to resolve the vulnerability by applying the mitigation steps below. For information on how to upgrade your WinCollect version, see the WinCollect 10.1.7 release notes:

<https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7028216&gt;

WinCollect Agent MSI (64-bit) - Standalone only

WinCollect Agent MSI (32-bit) - Standalone only

Workarounds and Mitigations

For upgrades to 10.1.7 the following steps are needed for complete remediation. Fresh installs of 10.1.7 or greater are not affected

When using the default path for install location and data, rerun the installer and select the “modify” option, select the options desired and run. This will update the permissions on the default locations.

When using custom paths for install and data locations, ensure the parent directories have file permissions that prevent unwanted modifications to WinCollect data and program files.

A future release of WinCollect will negate the need for post-upgrade remediation steps.