Panini Everest Engine 2.0.4 allows unprivileged users to create a file named Everest.exe in the %PROGRAMDATA%\Panini folder. This leads to privilege escalation because a service, running as SYSTEM, uses the unquoted path of %PROGRAMDATA%\Panini\Everest Engine\EverestEngine.exe and therefore a Trojan horse %PROGRAMDATA%\Panini\Everest.exe may be executed instead of the intended vendor-supplied EverestEngine.exe file.

References

• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-39959
• https://github.com/usmarine2141/CVE-2022-39959
• https://www.panini.com/en/news-events/panini-patents-revolutionary-new-%E2%80%9Ceverest%E2%80%9D-architecture