CVE-2018-7715
PrivateVPN 2.0.31 for macOS suffers from a root privilege escalation vulnerability with its com.privat.vpn.helper privileged helper tool.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (2.33%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
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 path string from the corresponding XPC message. This string is supposed to point to PrivateVPN's internal openvpn binary. If a new connection has not already been established, an attacker can send the XPC service a malicious XPC message with the path string pointing at a binary that he or she controls. This results in the execution of arbitrary code as the root user.
- CVSS 3.0
- 9.8 CRITICALCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 2.33% probability · 83th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Affected
- privatevpn/privatevpn
- Source
- cve@mitre.org
EPSS 2.3% since 27 October 2026; no change recorded yet. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
References
- https://github.com/VerSprite/research/blob/master/advisories/VS-2018-005.mdThird Party Advisory
- https://github.com/VerSprite/research/blob/master/advisories/VS-2018-005.mdThird Party Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.