{"cve":"CVE-2018-7716","nvd":{"published":"2018-03-05T23:29:00.410","modified":"2026-06-17T02:03:34.820","status":"Modified","description":"PrivateVPN 2.0.31 for macOS suffers from a root privilege escalation vulnerability with its com.privat.vpn.helper privileged helper tool. This privileged helper tool implements an XPC service that allows arbitrary installed applications to connect and send messages. The XPC service extracts the config string from the corresponding XPC message. This string is supposed to point to an internal OpenVPN configuration file. If a new connection has not already been established, an attacker can send the XPC service a malicious XPC message with the config string pointing at an OpenVPN configuration file that he or she controls. In the configuration file, an attacker can specify a dynamic library plugin that should run for every new VPN connection. This plugin will execute code in the context of the root user.","cvss_v4":null,"cvss_v3":{"version":"3.0","vector":"CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","score":9.8},"cwes":[],"references":["https://github.com/VerSprite/research/edit/master/advisories/VS-2018-006.md","https://github.com/VerSprite/research/edit/master/advisories/VS-2018-006.md"],"products":["privatevpn:privatevpn"],"source":"nvd","synced_at":"2026-10-19T20:48:50.842038930+00:00"},"epss":{"cve":"CVE-2018-7716","score":0.02331,"percentile":0.83547,"date":"2026-10-31"},"kev":null,"osv":[],"attribution":["This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.","EPSS scores: FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System, https://www.first.org/epss","Known exploited vulnerabilities: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","Package advisories: OSV (https://osv.dev), from the GitHub Advisory Database, PyPA, Go, RustSec and other ecosystem databases, under CC-BY 4.0 or CC0","CVE records: the CVE Program's CVE List (https://www.cve.org), under its terms of use (https://www.cve.org/Legal/TermsOfUse). CVE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation; this product is not affiliated with the CVE Program."]}