CVE-2018-11479

HIGH

Windscribe 1.81 - Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation via Named Pipe Command Injection

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Exploitation Summary

EIP tracks 2 public exploits for CVE-2018-11479. PoCs published by Metasploit, Emin Ghuliev, bcoles, including Metasploit module exploits/windows/local/windscribe_windscribeservice_priv_esc.

AI-analyzed exploit summary This Metasploit module exploits a privilege escalation vulnerability in Windscribe VPN's named pipe service, allowing arbitrary command execution as SYSTEM. It writes a payload to a named pipe, which the service then executes with elevated privileges.

Description

The VPN component in Windscribe 1.81 uses the OpenVPN client for connections. Also, it creates a WindScribeService.exe system process that establishes a \\.\pipe\WindscribeService named pipe endpoint that allows the Windscribe VPN process to connect and execute an OpenVPN process or other processes (like taskkill, etc.). There is no validation of the program name before constructing the lpCommandLine argument for a CreateProcess call. An attacker can run any malicious process with SYSTEM privileges through this named pipe.

Exploits (2)

exploitdb WORKING POC VERIFIED
by Metasploit · rubylocalwindows
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/48021

This Metasploit module exploits a privilege escalation vulnerability in Windscribe VPN's named pipe service, allowing arbitrary command execution as SYSTEM. It writes a payload to a named pipe, which the service then executes with elevated privileges.

Classification
Working Poc 100%
Attack Type
Lpe
Complexity
Moderate
Reliability
Reliable
Target: Windscribe VPN client versions prior to 1.82
No auth needed
Prerequisites: WindscribeService.exe running on the target system · Access to the named pipe \\.\pipe\WindscribeService
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 16, 2026 Full analysis →
metasploit WORKING POC EXCELLENT
by Emin Ghuliev, bcoles · rubypoc
https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/exploits/windows/local/windscribe_windscribeservice_priv_esc.rb

This Metasploit module exploits a privilege escalation vulnerability in Windscribe VPN's Windows service by abusing an unvalidated named pipe to execute arbitrary commands as SYSTEM. It writes a payload to a named pipe, which the vulnerable service then executes with elevated privileges.

Classification
Working Poc 100%
Attack Type
Lpe
Complexity
Moderate
Reliability
Reliable
Target: Windscribe VPN versions prior to 1.82
No auth needed
Prerequisites: Windscribe VPN installed and running on Windows · Local access to the target system
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 19, 2026 Full analysis →

References (2)

Core 2

Scores

CVSS v3 7.8
EPSS 0.2865
EPSS Percentile 96.7%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Details

CWE
CWE-20
Status published
Products (1)
windscribe/windscribe 1.81
Published May 25, 2018
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026