High

Privilege Escalation in Quick Heal AntiVirus Plus 2009 and Total Security 2009 via Weak File Permissions

IdentifiersCVE-2009-4556CWE-732

CVE-2009-4556 is a local privilege escalation vulnerability in Quick Heal AntiVirus Plus 2009 10.00 SP1 and Quick Heal Total Security 2009 10.00 SP1. The affected products assign overly permissive access controls to product files, specifically granting Everyone: Full Control. Because executables in the product installation can be modified or replaced by unprivileged local users, an attacker can substitute a legitimate program with a Trojanized executable. The issue was demonstrated by replacing quhlpsvc.exe. If the replaced executable is later launched by the product or by a privileged service context, the attacker's code can execute with elevated privileges.

For your environment

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ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

A local attacker can escalate privileges by modifying or replacing trusted Quick Heal product executables. Successful exploitation can result in execution of arbitrary code with elevated, potentially SYSTEM-level, privileges, enabling full compromise of the affected host, including installation of persistent malware, tampering with security software, access to sensitive data, and further post-exploitation activity.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

Restrict filesystem permissions on Quick Heal program directories and binaries to least privilege, removing Everyone: Full Control and any equivalent broad write access. Continuously monitor security product directories for unauthorized file changes, use application control or allowlisting to prevent execution of tampered binaries, and limit local interactive access for untrusted users to reduce the opportunity for local privilege escalation.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Upgrade to a fixed version of Quick Heal AntiVirus Plus or Quick Heal Total Security that applies secure ACLs to installed product files. If a vendor patch or updated release is not available, manually correct NTFS permissions on the Quick Heal installation directories and executables so that unprivileged users do not have write, modify, or full-control access. Verify that service binaries such as quhlpsvc.exe are writable only by Administrators and SYSTEM.

PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

No valid public exploits. Mallory filtered out 1 candidate as fakes, detection scripts, or README-only repos.

VALID 0 / 1 TOTALView more in app

All candidate exploits were filtered out by Mallory's validation.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType

QuickhealAntivirus Plus 2009application

QuickhealTotal Security 2009application

Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.

ACTIVITY FEED

Recent activity

No public activity tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.

0 SOURCESView more in app

No public activity observed for this vulnerability.

What this page doesn’t show

The version that knows your environment.

This page is what’s public. Mallory adds the parts that aren’t: which of your assets are affected, which adversaries are exploiting it right now, which detections to deploy, and what to do tonight.

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Exposure mapping

Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.

Threat actor evidence

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity