CVE-2021-47883
Published: 21 January 2026
Summary
CVE-2021-47883 is a high-severity Unquoted Search Path or Element (CWE-428) vulnerability in Sandboxie Plus (inferred from references). Its CVSS base score is 8.5 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Path Interception by Unquoted Path (T1574.009); ranked at the 2.7th 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 CM-6 (Configuration Settings) and RA-5 (Vulnerability Monitoring and Scanning).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2021-47883 is an unquoted service path vulnerability in the SbieSvc service of Sandboxie Plus version 0.7.2. This issue, classified under CWE-428, stems from an unquoted binary path in the service configuration, enabling local attackers to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges. Attackers can place malicious executables in specific directories that the service resolves during startup, resulting in those executables running under LocalSystem permissions.
The vulnerability requires local access (AV:L) and low-privileged user rights (PR:L), with low attack complexity (AC:L) and no user interaction (UI:N). Exploitation allows attackers to achieve high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H), as reflected in its CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8. Successful attacks grant full system-level code execution, potentially leading to complete compromise of the affected host.
Advisories and related resources include the VulnCheck advisory on the Sandboxie Plus SbieSvc unquoted service path at https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/sandboxie-plus-sbiesvc-unquoted-service-path, a proof-of-concept exploit at https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/49631, and the official Sandboxie Plus site at https://sandboxie-plus.com/, which may provide patch or mitigation guidance.
A public exploit PoC is available, indicating feasibility for real-world local privilege escalation attacks against unpatched systems.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-3624
Vulnerability details
Sandboxie Plus 0.7.2 contains an unquoted service path vulnerability in the SbieSvc service that allows local attackers to execute code with elevated privileges. Attackers can exploit the unquoted binary path to inject malicious executables that will be launched with LocalSystem…
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permissions during service startup.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Unquoted service path in SbieSvc directly enables path interception by unquoted path for local privilege escalation to SYSTEM.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly remediates the unquoted service path flaw in Sandboxie Plus by applying vendor patches or updates that quote the SbieSvc binary path.
Enforces secure configuration settings for Windows services, including properly quoting the ImagePath registry value to block exploitation of unquoted service paths like in SbieSvc.
Vulnerability scanning identifies unquoted service path misconfigurations in SbieSvc, enabling timely remediation before local privilege escalation exploitation.