CVE-2024-53588

High

Published: 23 January 2025

Published

23 January 2025

Modified

15 April 2026

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score v3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0019 8.7th percentile

Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2024-53588 is a high-severity Uncontrolled Search Path Element (CWE-427) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique DLL (T1574.001); ranked at the 8.7th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 CM-10 (Software Usage Restrictions) and CM-14 (Signed Components).

Deeper analysis

CVE-2024-53588 is a DLL hijacking vulnerability in iTop VPN version 16.0. The issue allows attackers to execute arbitrary code by placing a crafted DLL file into the path \ProgramData\iTop VPN\Downloader\vpn6. It is classified under CWE-427 (Untrusted Search Path) and received a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (High), with the vector AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

A local attacker requires no privileges and can exploit the vulnerability with low attack complexity, though user interaction is needed, such as launching the iTop VPN application. Upon successful exploitation, the attacker achieves high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability through arbitrary code execution.

Details on exploitation and potential mitigations are available in the referenced GitHub repository at https://github.com/JonathanLauener/iTop-privesc, published on 2025-01-23.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-52002

Vulnerability details

A DLL hijacking vulnerability in iTop VPN v16.0 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via placing a crafted DLL file into the path \ProgramData\iTop VPN\Downloader\vpn6.