Local privilege escalation via unquoted service path
Published Jan 25, 2026 · Updated Jan 25, 2026
An unquoted service path in Magic Utilities Magic Mouse Utilities 2.20 allows local users to gain elevated privileges on Windows. The MagicMouse2Service registration stores its executable path under Program Files (x86) without surrounding quotation marks, causing Windows to search attacker-controllable path prefixes when the service starts. A local user must be able to place an executable in a searched prefix; service startup then runs that file as LocalSystem, permitting complete host compromise.
Summary
What happened
An unquoted service path in Magic Utilities Magic Mouse Utilities 2.20 allows local users to gain elevated privileges on Windows. The MagicMouse2Service registration stores its executable path under Program Files (x86) without surrounding quotation marks, causing Windows to search attacker-controllable path prefixes when the service starts. A local user must be able to place an executable in a searched prefix; service startup then runs that file as LocalSystem, permitting complete host compromise.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2020-36936
- Published
- Jan 25, 2026
- Updated
- Jan 25, 2026
- Vendor
- Magic Utilities
- Product
- Magic Mouse Utilities
- Classifications
- CWE-428, T1574.009
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jan 25, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jan 25, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
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- Affected versionversion=2.20
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Magic Mouse 2 utilities 2.20 magicmouse2service Unquoted Service Pathproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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