What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2016-20060: Hotspot Shield 6.0.3 Unquoted Service Path Privilege Escalation

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2026-04-04 · updated 2026-07-20
• Weakness: CWE-428

Description

Hotspot Shield 6.0.3 contains an unquoted service path vulnerability in the hshld service binary that allows local attackers to escalate privileges by injecting malicious executables. Attackers can place executable files in the service path and upon service restart or system reboot, the malicious code executes with LocalSystem privileges.

Affected products

• Hotspotshield Hotspot Shield: 6.0.3

References

• https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40528
• https://www.hotspotshield.com
• https://www.hotspotshield.com/download/
• https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/hotspot-shield-unquoted-service-path-privilege-escalation

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