Exploiting Flaws in Lenovo Vantage Provides Hackers with Elevated Access up to SYSTEM User Level
Lenovo Vantage, a utility pre-installed on most modern ThinkPad and ThinkBook laptops, has been found to contain several critical vulnerabilities that could potentially allow local attackers to gain system-level access on Windows endpoints.
The most significant of these vulnerabilities, CVE-2025-6232, is a flaw in Lenovo Vantage's registry whitelist validation mechanism. This vulnerability allows an attacker to bypass registry write restrictions and manipulate service configurations, enabling the execution of arbitrary code with system-level rights.
The flaw exists in the Set-KeyChildren command, which is designed to restrict registry write operations to a safe location (HKCU\SOFTWARE\Lenovo). However, a substring matching check (IndexOf) can be bypassed by crafting malicious registry paths such as `HKLM\SOFTWARE\Lenovo\HKCU\SOFTWARE\Lenovo`.
Because Lenovo-specific keys under areas like `HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Lenovo\PWRMGRV\ConfKeys\Data` are writable, attackers can modify Discretionary Access Control Lists (DACLs), create symbolic links using Windows API functions, and redirect registry writes to privileged locations. This manipulation enables attackers to tamper with service image paths, causing Windows services to run arbitrary binaries with system privileges upon service start.
Lenovo released patches for these vulnerabilities on 8 July, but unpatched endpoints remain susceptible to one-click privilege escalation, granting complete control of Windows endpoints. Security teams are urged to push the patch urgently and audit registry ACLs for lingering abuse.
The architecture of Lenovo Vantage illustrates how each privileged add-in registers contracts that the central service blindly routes. Any commodity malware able to land on disk can chain these flaws to achieve the highest privileges with almost no user interaction.
CVE-2025-6230, CVE-2025-6231, and CVE-2025-6232 have been disclosed, highlighting the risk of a trusted OEM utility being used for full machine compromise. The whitelist check for the REG WRITE command in CVE-2025-6232 allows a crafted path such as `HKLM\SOFTWARE\Lenovo\HKCU\SOFTWARE\Lenovo`.
In hardened environments, it is recommended to remove or restrict Lenovo Vantage entirely. In the most critical contract, VantageCoreAddin, SQL-injection primitives have been noted, touching the configuration database stored at a specific location. Atredis analysts have pointed out that this single weakness makes the remaining RPC attack surface fully reachable without admin rights.
Trusted bloatware often hides enterprise-grade backdoors in plain sight, serving as a reminder for the importance of patching and auditing software regularly. When the trusted executable loads the hijacked DLL, the adversary gains code execution inside a Lenovo-signed context and can communicate freely with the RPC interface.
These vulnerabilities underscore the importance of regular software updates and audits, particularly for utilities that run as system-level processes and dynamically load C# plug-ins. Lenovo Vantage is just one example of how seemingly benign software can pose a significant security risk if not properly maintained.
In the light of these vulnerabilities, it's crucial for security teams to address issues in data-and-cloud-computing and cybersecurity, such as the one found in Lenovo Vantage, a utility pre-installed on ThinkPad and ThinkBook laptops. Particularly noteworthy is CVE-2025-6232, a registry whitelist validation flaw that enables local attackers to manipulate service configurations and execute arbitrary code with system-level rights, by crafting malicious registry paths like . Consequently, regular updates and audits of technology solutions, especially those running as system-level processes, are vital to maintain a secure data landscape.
