CVE-2020-13534
📋 TL;DR
This CVE describes a privilege escalation vulnerability in Dream Report 5 R20-2 where weak permissions on COM Class Identifiers allow attackers to execute malicious code with elevated privileges. Users running Dream Report 5 R20-2 on Windows systems are affected. The vulnerability can be triggered when an attacker provides a malicious file to the system.
💻 Affected Systems
- Dream Report 5
📦 What is this software?
Dream Report by Dreamreport
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
An attacker gains SYSTEM-level privileges on the affected machine, enabling complete system compromise, data theft, and lateral movement within the network.
Likely Case
Local attackers escalate from limited user privileges to administrative privileges, allowing installation of malware, data access, and persistence mechanisms.
If Mitigated
With proper user privilege separation and application whitelisting, impact is limited to the compromised user account without system-wide escalation.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires local access to the system and ability to execute or provide malicious files. The vulnerability is in COM registration permissions which can be leveraged through various Windows mechanisms.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Later versions of Dream Report 5 (post R20-2)
Vendor Advisory: https://talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2020-1146
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Upgrade Dream Report 5 to a version beyond R20-2. 2. Apply any vendor-provided patches or updates. 3. Restart the system to ensure changes take effect.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Restrict COM Object Permissions
windowsModify permissions on vulnerable COM CLSIDs to restrict execution to trusted users only
regedit to modify permissions on HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{vulnerable-GUID}\LocalServer32 and InprocServer32 keys
Application Control Policies
windowsImplement application whitelisting to prevent execution of unauthorized COM objects
Configure Windows AppLocker or Software Restriction Policies
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict user privilege separation - ensure users run with minimal necessary privileges
- Deploy endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to monitor for privilege escalation attempts
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Dream Report version in Control Panel > Programs and Features, or run 'wmic product get name,version' and look for 'Dream Report 5' version R20-2Check Version:
wmic product where "name like '%Dream Report%'" get name,versionVerify Fix Applied:
Verify Dream Report version is updated beyond R20-2, and check COM object permissions in registry for proper security settings📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Windows Event Logs showing unexpected COM object activation, privilege escalation events (Event ID 4672, 4688)
- Process creation from unusual COM objects
Network Indicators:
- No specific network indicators as this is a local privilege escalation
SIEM Query:
source="Windows Security" AND (event_id=4672 OR event_id=4688) AND process_name="*" AND user_changed="true"