{"id":59849,"date":"2025-08-03T13:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T13:42:12","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-02T23:37:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T05:37:21","slug":"cve-2024-36486-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-parallels-desktop-vm-archive-restoration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2024-36486-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-parallels-desktop-vm-archive-restoration\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2024-36486: Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in Parallels Desktop VM Archive Restoration<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the dynamic field of cybersecurity, it&#8217;s crucial to keep up to speed with the latest vulnerabilities that could pose a threat to your system&#8217;s integrity. This blog post focuses on a recently disclosed vulnerability, CVE-2024-36486, identified in Parallels Desktop for Mac version 20.1.1. This vulnerability is of significant concern due to its potential to escalate privileges, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-7793-critical-vulnerability-in-tenda-fh451-leading-to-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"68728\">leading to system<\/a> compromise or data leakage. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2024-52561-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-parallels-desktop-for-mac\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"69297\">Parallels Desktop<\/a> is a popular choice for running Windows on Mac, which makes this vulnerability relevant to a wide range of users, both individual and corporate.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2024-36486<br \/>\nSeverity: High (CVSS: 7.8)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Local<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: Low<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-31278-memory-corruption-vulnerability-with-potential-system-compromise\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"70418\">Potential system<\/a> compromise or data leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-1949538136\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 700px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 8px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 40px; height: 40px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    A new way to communicate\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 12px;\">\r\n    Ameeba Chat is built on encrypted identity, not personal profiles.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 16px;\">\r\n    Message, call, share files, and coordinate with identities kept separate.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\r\n    <li>\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Ameeba Chat authenticates access<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Aliases and categories<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, and files<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Secure notes for sensitive information<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\r\n    Private communication, rethought.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Download Ameeba Chat<\/a>\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Learn More<\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2024-54189-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-parallels-desktop-for-mac-snapshot-functionality\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"69800\">Parallels Desktop for Mac<\/a> | Version 20.1.1 (55740)<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The exploit takes advantage of a privilege <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-49747-unauthorized-privilege-elevation-in-azure-machine-learning\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"68727\">escalation vulnerability<\/a> that occurs during the restoration of a virtual machine archive in Parallels Desktop. Specifically, the prl_vmarchiver tool, which is used to decompress the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-40738-critical-arbitrary-file-write-vulnerability-in-sinec-nms\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"66594\">file and write<\/a> the content back to its original location, does so using root privileges. An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-42959-unauthenticated-replay-attack-exploiting-hmac-reuse\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88068\">attacker can exploit<\/a> this process by creating a hard link to write to any file of their choosing. By directing the decompression operation to a different location, an attacker can potentially gain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-7695-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-dataverse-integration-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"69163\">escalated privileges<\/a> within the system.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-4064435750\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a simplified example of how an attacker might exploit the vulnerability:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\"># Attacker creates a hard link to a sensitive file\nln \/path\/to\/sensitive\/file \/path\/to\/restore\/location\n# Attacker initiates the VM restoration process\nprl_vmarchiver restore \/path\/to\/restore\/location<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In this example, `prl_vmarchiver` would restore the VM archive content to `\/path\/to\/restore\/location`, but due to the hard link, also overwrite the sensitive file at `\/path\/to\/sensitive\/file` with the same content, potentially granting the attacker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-6380-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-onlyoffice-docs-plugin-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"69232\">escalated privileges<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mitigation and Prevention<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s recommended to apply the vendor patch as soon as it&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2021-26383-critical-vulnerability-in-amd-tee-puts-system-integrity-and-data-availability-in-jeopardy\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"88067\">available to fix this vulnerability<\/a>. In the meantime, using a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can serve as a temporary mitigation method. Regularly updating software, monitoring system logs, and limiting user <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2015-10139-privilege-escalation-vulnerability-in-wplms-theme-for-wordpress\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"69282\">privileges can help prevent future exploitation of similar vulnerabilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview In the dynamic field of cybersecurity, it&#8217;s crucial to keep up to speed with the latest vulnerabilities that could pose a threat to your system&#8217;s integrity. This blog post focuses on a recently disclosed vulnerability, CVE-2024-36486, identified in Parallels Desktop for Mac version 20.1.1. This vulnerability is of significant concern due to its potential [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[82],"product":[],"attack_vector":[76],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-59849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","vendor-microsoft","attack_vector-privilege-escalation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59849"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80882,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59849\/revisions\/80882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59849"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=59849"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=59849"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=59849"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=59849"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=59849"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=59849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}