CVE-2024-50986
📋 TL;DR
CVE-2024-50986 is a DLL hijacking vulnerability in Clementine music player version 1.3.1 that allows local attackers to execute arbitrary code by placing a malicious DLL file in a location where the application searches for dependencies. This affects users running the vulnerable version of Clementine on Windows systems where an attacker has local access.
💻 Affected Systems
- Clementine
📦 What is this software?
Clementine by Clementine Player
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete system compromise with attacker gaining full control of the affected system, potentially leading to data theft, ransomware deployment, or lateral movement within the network.
Likely Case
Local privilege escalation where an authenticated but low-privileged user gains higher privileges or executes malicious code in the context of the Clementine process.
If Mitigated
Limited impact with proper application whitelisting, restricted user permissions, and security controls preventing DLL execution from untrusted locations.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploit requires local access to the system. Proof of concept code is available in the referenced GitHub repository. Attack requires user to run Clementine after DLL placement.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Not available
Vendor Advisory: Not available
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
No official patch available. Consider upgrading to a maintained fork like Strawberry Music Player or applying workarounds.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Restrict DLL search path
windowsUse Windows policies to restrict where applications can load DLLs from
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager" -Name "SafeDllSearchMode" -Value 1
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\KnownDLLs" -Name "*" -Value "" (Note: Modify KnownDLLs carefully)
Run with restricted permissions
windowsRun Clementine with limited user privileges to reduce impact
runas /user:standarduser "C:\Program Files\Clementine\clementine.exe"
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Uninstall Clementine 1.3.1 and replace with alternative music player like Strawberry Music Player
- Implement application control/whitelisting to prevent unauthorized DLL execution
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Clementine version: Open Clementine → Help → About. If version is 1.3.1 and running on Windows, system is vulnerable.Check Version:
Clementine shows version in About dialog. No command-line version check available.Verify Fix Applied:
Verify Clementine is uninstalled or replaced with alternative software. Check Windows Event Logs for DLL loading from unusual locations.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Windows Event ID 4688 (Process Creation) showing Clementine spawning unexpected child processes
- Sysmon Event ID 7 (Image loaded) showing DLLs loaded from non-standard locations by Clementine
Network Indicators:
- Unusual outbound connections from Clementine process
- DNS queries to suspicious domains from Clementine
SIEM Query:
source="windows" (EventID=4688 OR EventID=7) ProcessName="clementine.exe" | where DLLPath NOT CONTAINS "C:\Program Files\Clementine"