An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when Windows Error Reporting manager improperly handles hard links. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could overwrite a targeted file leading to an elevated status.



To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would first have to log on to the system. An attacker could then run a specially crafted application that could exploit the vulnerability and take control of an affected system.



The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how Windows Error Reporting manager handles hard links.
In the Linux kernel before 5.1.17, ptrace_link in kernel/ptrace.c mishandles the recording of the credentials of a process that wants to create a ptrace relationship, which allows local users to obtain root access by leveraging certain scenarios with a parent-child process relationship, where a parent drops privileges and calls execve (potentially allowing control by an attacker).