title: Local Privilege Escalation in pyinstaller on Windows
description: PyInstaller bundles a Python application and all its dependencies into a single package. A PyInstaller built application, elevated as a privileged process, may be tricked by an unprivileged attacker into deleting files the unprivileged user does not otherwise have access to. A user is affected if **all** the following are satisfied: 1. The user runs an application containing either `matplotlib` or `win32com`. 2. The application is ran as administrator (or at least a user with higher privileges than the attacker). 3. The user's temporary directory is not locked to that specific user (most likely due to `TMP`/`TEMP` environment variables pointing to an unprotected, arbitrary, non default location). Either: A. The attacker is able to very carefully time the replacement of a temporary file with a symlink. This switch must occur exactly between `shutil.rmtree()`'s builtin symlink check and the deletion itself B: The application was built with Python 3.7.x or earlier which has no protection against Directory Junctions links. The vulnerability has been addressed in PR #7827 which corresponds to `pyinstaller >= 5.13.1`. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this vulnerability.
problem types: CWE-379: Creation of Temporary File in Directory with Insecure Permissions
affected:
{
vendor: pyinstaller
product: pyinstaller
versions:
version: < 5.13.1, status: affected
}
metrics:
cvssV3_1: [
attackComplexity: LOW
attackVector: LOCAL
availabilityImpact: HIGH
baseScore: 8.8
baseSeverity: HIGH
confidentialityImpact: HIGH
integrityImpact: HIGH
privilegesRequired: LOW
scope: CHANGED
userInteraction: NONE
vectorString: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
version: 3.1
]