rapid7/metasploit-framework — pull request #691 by wchen-r7 (2012-08-14 06:57:40+00:00)
Title: Add priv escalation mod for exploiting trusted service path

This module exploits a logic flaw due to how the lpApplicationName parameter is handled. When the lpApplicationName contains a space, the file name is ambiguous. Take this file path as example: C:\program files\hello.exe; The Windows API will try to interpret this as two possible paths: C:\program.exe, and C:\program files\hello.exe, and then execute all of them. To some software developers, this is an unexpected behavior, which becomes a security problem if an attacker is able to place a malicious executable in one
of these unexpected paths, sometimes escalate privileges if run as SYSTEM. Some softwares such as OpenVPN 2.1.1, or OpenSSH Server 5, etc... all have the same problem.