Local privilege escalation via signed-process DLL hijacking
Published Jul 13, 2026 · Updated Jul 13, 2026
Untrusted search path handling in Tencent PC Manager 18.1.30242.301 allows local users to disable protected processes via DLL hijacking. The QMUDisk driver trusts a Tencent executable's on-disk RSA signature without validating its loaded modules, so QQPCRTP.exe can load an attacker-placed libprotobuf_dll.dll and invoke privileged IOCTLs. A low-privileged local user must place the DLL beside the signed executable; successful use can terminate protected processes, unload security drivers, and remove kernel callbacks.
Summary
What happened
Untrusted search path handling in Tencent PC Manager 18.1.30242.301 allows local users to disable protected processes via DLL hijacking. The QMUDisk driver trusts a Tencent executable's on-disk RSA signature without validating its loaded modules, so QQPCRTP.exe can load an attacker-placed libprotobuf_dll.dll and invoke privileged IOCTLs. A low-privileged local user must place the DLL beside the signed executable; successful use can terminate protected processes, unload security drivers, and remove kernel callbacks.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-15515
- Published
- Jul 13, 2026
- Updated
- Jul 13, 2026
- Vendor
- Tencent
- Product
- Tencent PC Manager
- Classifications
- CWE-427, T1574.001, T1562.001
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jul 13, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jul 13, 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?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=18.1.30242.301
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
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
- qmukiller Tencent QMUDisk exploitfunctional · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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