Privilege Escalation in Miele Benchmark Programming Tool

Vendor description

"There are many good reasons for choosing Miele. Since the company's founding in 1899, Miele has remained true to its "Immer Besser" brand promise. This means that we will do all that we can to be "Immer Besser" (forever better) than our competitors and "Immer Besser" (forever better) than we already are. For our customers, this means the peace of mind of knowing that choosing Miele is a good decision – and probably the decision of a lifetime."

Source: www.mieleusa.com/c/about-us-9.htm

Business recommendation

The vendor provides a patched version which should be installed immediately. 

An in-depth security analysis performed by security professionals is highly advised, as the software may be affected from further security issues.

Vulnerability overview/description

1) Privilege Escalation (CVE-2022-22521)

The path where the Miele Benchmark Programming Tool is installed is writable for any user on the Windows operation system. This allows replacing the Uninstall binary and thus an attacker gaining local admin privileges if uninstalled.

Proof of concept

1) Privilege Escalation (CVE-2022-22521)

The Uninstall string can be found in the following registry entry:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{<UUID of Miele Benchmark Programming>}

The UninstallString field has the following value:

UninstallString
"C:\MIELE_SERVICE\Miele Benchmark Programming Tool\Uninstall Miele Benchmark Programming Tool.exe" /allusers

For exploitation, replace the "Uninstall Miele Benchmark Programming Tool.exe" with a malicious binary and uninstall via Software Center or call the admin and let them uninstall the Miele Benchmark Programming Tool.

Vulnerable / tested versions

The following versions have been tested, which were the latest versions available during the time of the test:

• 1.1.49 
• 1.2.71

Other (lower) software versions may be affected as well.

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