Nssm-2.24 Privilege Escalation ›

C:\ProgramData\... or C:\Program Files\... with weak permissions Full system takeover (Vertical Privilege Escalation) Detection EDR alerts for nssm.exe in unusual paths like \Windows\tmp\ Prevention & Mitigation

The primary method for escalating privileges via NSSM 2.24 involves . If an administrator installs a service using NSSM and the path to the executable contains spaces but no quotation marks (e.g., C:\Program Files\Service Name\nssm.exe ), Windows will search for and attempt to execute files in the following order: C:\Program.exe C:\Program Files\Service.exe C:\Program Files\Service Name\nssm.exe nssm-2.24 privilege escalation

The is a popular tool for running any application as a Windows service. While the tool itself is not inherently malicious, it is frequently exploited for Local Privilege Escalation (LPE) due to misconfigurations or unquoted service paths. Core Vulnerability: Unquoted Service Paths C:\ProgramData\

Limitations and real-world constraints