Local Privilege Escalation in Windows

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

8.8 · CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS

• CVE-2023-49797: 0.32% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 25.55 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Impact A PyInstaller built application, elevated as a privileged process, may be tricked by an unprivileged attacker into deleting files the unprivileged user does not otherwise have access to. A user is affected if all the following are satisfied: The user runs an application containing either matplotlib or win32com. The application is ran as administrator (or at least a user with higher privileges than the attacker). The user's temporary directory is not locked to that specific user (most likely due to TMP/TEMP environment variables pointing to an unprotected, arbitrary, non default location). Either: - The attacker is able to very carefully time the replacement of a temporary file with a symlink. This switch must occur exactly between shutil.rmtree()'s builtin symlink check and the deletion itself - The application was built with Python 3.7.x or earlier which has no protection against Directory Junctions links Patches The vulnerability has been addressed in…

Published by the source

9 Dec 2023, 00:39 UTC

Last modified by the source

22 Nov 2024, 20:33 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 13:27 UTC

1. Revision 2 · amended · 26 Oct 2026

   Amended from ghsa record GHSA-9w2p-rh8c-v9g5

2. Revision 1 · created · 24 Oct 2026

   Published from osv record GHSA-9w2p-rh8c-v9g5

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2023-49797

Advisory: Local Privilege Escalation in Windows
IDs: CVE-2023-49797, GHSA-9w2p-rh8c-v9g5
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2023-49797 (revision 2, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 13:27 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 8.8)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: pyinstaller 5.13.1. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- PyPI pyinstaller: affected < 5.13.1; fixed in 5.13.1

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- `python -m pip show pyinstaller`: prints the installed version. Run with the environment that serves production active.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on pyinstaller.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-9w2p-rh8c-v9g5 (OSV record GHSA-9w2p-rh8c-v9g5 lists affected ranges: PyPI pyinstaller >=0 <5.13.1 (fixed))
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-9w2p-rh8c-v9g5 (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-9w2p-rh8c-v9g5 lists affected ranges: PyPI pyinstaller >=0 <5.13.1)

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