Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser where a configuration file, with local privileges, is vulnerable to symbolic link and hard link attacks. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run processes in an elevated context. An attacker could then install programs; view, change or delete data.

To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would first have to log on to the system. An attacker could then run a specially crafted application that could exploit the vulnerability and take control of an affected system.

The security update addresses the vulnerability by writing the file to a location with an appropriate Access Control List.