Description

Dell Command Update (DCU), versions prior to 5.7.1, a Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition vulnerability. A low privileged attacker with local access could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to Elevation of Privileges.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.3",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-19T15:17:11.923Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-19T15:17:11.923Z",
  "executiveSummary": "Dell Command Update (DCU) versions prior to 5.7.1 contain a Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition vulnerability that exposes local users to potential security risks. This vulnerability arises from flawed synchronization during file or resource handling within the application, allowing an authenticated, low-privileged local attacker to manipulate file states between the validation phase and the execution phase.\nSuccessful exploitation of this flaw enables an adversary to achieve an Elevation of Privileges on the targeted host, potentially granting unauthorized access to elevated system resources or administrative execution contexts. The risk implications are significant for multi-user environments or endpoints where untrusted local users have interactive access.\nExploitation requirements are strictly local, meaning the attacker must already possess interactive or programmatic execution capability on the underlying operating system. No remote network exposure is associated with this vector, as the attack relies entirely on local inter-process communication, file system operations, or privileged service interactions handled by the vulnerable software.",
  "technicalDetails": "The root cause of the vulnerability is a Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition residing within the resource handling logic of Dell Command Update (DCU) versions prior to 5.7.1. In software engineering paradigms vulnerable to TOCTOU flaws, an application performs a security check or state validation on a resource—such as a file, directory, or registry key—and subsequently utilizes that resource in a separate operational step without atomic guarantees. Because a temporal window exists between the initial validation (check) and the actual consumption (use), the state of the resource can be altered maliciously.\nThe affected component involves the local privilege management routines, update staging mechanisms, or helper services utilized by Dell Command Update to apply system firmware and software packages. Authentication requirements are minimal, as the adversary only requires local access with low privileges to execute code on the host operating system. Network exposure is non-existent, restricting the attack surface exclusively to the local host boundary.\nThe attack flow proceeds as follows: First, the low-privileged attacker monitors or interacts with a privileged file operation, update staging directory, or inter-process communication channel managed by Dell Command Update. Second, when the DCU application or its accompanying background service performs a security check on a target file or path, the attacker rapidly swaps the validated resource with a symbolic link, hard link, or malicious payload before the application executes its secondary usage phase. Third, because the application trusts the initial validation outcome and proceeds with the operation using the substituted resource, it performs privileged actions against the attacker-controlled target.\nThe resulting post-exploitation impact is an Elevation of Privileges, allowing the low-privileged attacker to compromise system integrity, overwrite protected files, or escalate execution contexts to those of the high-privileged service managing the update operations."
}