CVE-2021-28098

HIGH

Forescout CounterACT <8.1.4 - Privilege Escalation

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

An issue was discovered in Forescout CounterACT before 8.1.4. A local privilege escalation vulnerability is present in the logging function. SecureConnector runs with administrative privileges and writes logs entries to a file in %PROGRAMDATA%\ForeScout SecureConnector\ that has full permissions for the Everyone group. Using a symbolic link allows an attacker to point the log file to a privileged location such as %WINDIR%\System32. The resulting log file adopts the file permissions of the source of the symbolic link (in this case, the Everyone group). The log file in System32 can be replaced and renamed with a malicious DLL for DLL hijacking.

References (3)

Core 3
Core References
Vendor Advisory x_refsource_misc
https://docs.forescout.com
Exploit, Third Party Advisory x_refsource_misc
https://jordanpotti.com/2021/03/30/forescout-priv-esc-folder-permissions/

Scores

CVSS v3 7.8
EPSS 0.0005
EPSS Percentile 14.0%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Details

CWE
CWE-427 CWE-732 CWE-59
Status published
Products (1)
forescout/counteract < 8.1.4
Published Apr 14, 2021
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026