CVE-2020-23438
Published: 04 March 2025
Summary
CVE-2020-23438 is a high-severity Uncontrolled Search Path Element (CWE-427) vulnerability in Wondershare Filmora. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique DLL (T1574.001); ranked at the 22.2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-6 (Least Privilege) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2020-23438 is a Trojan DLL hijacking vulnerability affecting Wondershare Filmora version 9.2.11, enabling privilege escalation. Mapped to CWE-427 (Untrusted Search Path), it carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8, with vector AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H, indicating high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability from local exploitation.
A local attacker possessing low privileges can exploit this issue with low attack complexity and no user interaction. By leveraging the DLL hijacking mechanism, the attacker can elevate privileges, potentially gaining full system control from an initial low-privilege position.
Mitigation details are available in the referenced advisory at https://cvewalkthrough.com/cve-2020-23438-wondershare-filmora-9-2-11-trojan-dll-hijacking-leading-to-privilege-escalation/. The CVE was published on 2025-03-04T21:15:10.907.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2020-16185
Vulnerability details
Wondershare filmora 9.2.11 is affected by Trojan Dll hijacking leading to privilege escalation.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
CVE describes DLL hijacking via untrusted search path (CWE-427) enabling local privilege escalation to full system control.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Flaw remediation directly addresses the known DLL hijacking vulnerability in Wondershare Filmora 9.2.11 by applying patches or vendor mitigations to prevent privilege escalation.
Least privilege ensures the Filmora application and related processes run with minimal necessary privileges, limiting the impact and success of privilege escalation via Trojan DLL hijacking.
Malicious code protection scans for and blocks the Trojan DLL placed by local attackers to exploit the untrusted search path vulnerability.