Description

During an internal security assessment, a potential vulnerability was discovered in Lenovo Dock Manager that could allow an authenticated local user to perform an arbitrary file deletion with elevated privileges.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.1",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-13T15:19:55.517Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-13T15:19:55.517Z",
  "executiveSummary": "An internal security assessment identified a vulnerability in Lenovo Dock Manager that enables authenticated local users to execute arbitrary file deletion with elevated system privileges. This security flaw represents an arbitrary file deletion vulnerability affecting the specified Lenovo product. The primary impact of successful exploitation includes the unauthorized removal of critical system files, application binaries, or user data, potentially resulting in denial of service conditions, system instability, or security control bypasses depending on the targeted files. The affected system is Lenovo Dock Manager. The risk implications are significant for multi-user environments or systems where local integrity must be strictly maintained, as an attacker could disrupt critical operating system operations or facilitate secondary exploitation vectors such as planting malicious binaries in place of deleted privileged files. The attacker capabilities required for this vulnerability include local system access and valid authentication to the underlying operating system. Exploitation requirements mandate that the attacker possesses the ability to interact locally with the vulnerable Lenovo Dock Manager component, leveraging its high-privilege execution context to delete files that standard user accounts would normally lack the permissions to remove. No remote network vector is required for this attack.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability residing within Lenovo Dock Manager stems from insecure file deletion handling or improper privilege management during administrative or maintenance tasks performed by high-privilege background services. The root cause typically involves a privileged service or helper process accepting file paths or deletion requests from low-privileged, authenticated local contexts without adequately validating the target path, verifying ownership, or enforcing strict boundary checks. Consequently, the privileged component executes the deletion operation against arbitrary file paths supplied or manipulated by the attacker. The affected component is the Lenovo Dock Manager service or associated privileged helper executable responsible for file management operations. Authentication requirements dictate that the user must possess valid local credentials and an interactive or programmatic session on the host operating system. Privilege requirements specify that the attacker initiates the attack from a low-privileged or standard user account, subsequently abusing the high-privilege execution context of the Lenovo Dock Manager service to achieve the desired system-level impact. Network exposure is strictly local, as the attack surface resides entirely within inter-process communication mechanisms, local RPC endpoints, named pipes, or file system monitoring hooks exposed locally by the application. The attack flow proceeds step-by-step as follows: First, the authenticated local user identifies or induces a condition where Lenovo Dock Manager processes file deletion instructions. Second, the attacker manipulates the input parameters, symbolic links, hard links, or directory junction points to redirect the file deletion routine toward a sensitive target file located in a protected directory, such as system32 or application installation directories where standard users lack write or delete permissions. Third, the unvalidated request is processed by the privileged Lenovo Dock Manager background service. Fourth, executing with elevated privileges, the service honors the deletion request and removes the targeted sensitive file from the file system. The post-exploitation impact includes localized denial of service, corruption of software installations, deletion of security audit logs, or the potential setup of race conditions leading to arbitrary code execution if the removed file can be replaced with a malicious payload prior to a system or application restart."
}