CVE-2019-16897

Severity: critical (CVSS 9.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 1.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2019-10-28 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-269

Description

In K7 Antivirus Premium 16.0.xxx through 16.0.0120; K7 Total Security 16.0.xxx through 16.0.0120; and K7 Ultimate Security 16.0.xxx through 16.0.0120, the module K7TSHlpr.dll improperly validates the administrative privileges of the user, allowing arbitrary registry writes in the K7AVOptn.dll module to facilitate escalation of privileges via inter-process communication with a service process.

Affected products

K7Computing K7 Antivirus Premium: from 16.0.000 through 16.0.0120
K7Computing K7 Total Security: from 16.0.000 through 16.0.0120
K7Computing K7 Ultimate Security: from 16.0.000 through 16.0.0120

References

https://github.com/NtRaiseHardError/Antimalware-Research/blob/master/K7%20Security/Local%20Privilege%20Escalation/v16.0.0120/README.md
https://github.com/NtRaiseHardError/Antimalware-Research/blob/master/K7%20Security/Local%20Privilege%20Escalation/v16.0.0120/README.md

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