HP has issued a warning about a vulnerability in its much-loved Support Assistant tool.
The flaw in the service, which comes pre-installed on all HP laptops and desktops, was discovered by Secure D researchers, who rated it as particularly concerning with a "high" severity score of 8.2.
Experts say cyber attackers could use an infected HP Support Assistant tool to elevate their privileges on vulnerable systems, gaining unauthorized access.
HP Support Assistant vulnerability
An advisory (opens in a new tab) posted by HP states that the DLL hijacking flaw is triggered when users launch HP Performance Tune-up from HP Support Assistant, an application designed to help computer users troubleshoot problems and perform diagnostic tests and check for BIOS and driver updates, among other functions.
The DLL vulnerability, named CVE-2022-38395, involves threat actors injecting malicious code into HP Support Assistant, which then leverages Windows logic to prioritize these libraries over DLLs in the System32 directory.
In an effort to eliminate the vulnerabilities that have been identified, HP urges customers to update the Support Assistant application immediately. A security update for version 9.x has been released in the Microsoft Store, but users of version 8.x will not receive a security patch. Instead, they are also encouraged to update to the latest version of 9.x, accessible via the "Check for Updates" button in the "About" section.
BleepingComputer notes that this is not the first time that the HP Support Assistant app has suffered from vulnerabilities. In fact, we reported that ten flaws were discovered in October 2019, some of which remained unpatched for more than a year after their initial discovery.
While updating software is one way to stay on top of security patches, more software will inevitably lead to more potential vulnerabilities. With this in mind, removing unnecessary or unwanted software provides a solution that simultaneously frees up disk space and processing power on your machine.
Via BleepingComputer (Opens in a new tab)