CVE-2016-1281
Untrusted search path vulnerability in the installer for TrueCrypt 7.2 and 7.1a, VeraCrypt before 1.17-BETA, and possibly other products…
- 7.8HighCVSS base score
- 0.82%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 43% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
Untrusted search path vulnerability in the installer for TrueCrypt 7.2 and 7.1a, VeraCrypt before 1.17-BETA, and possibly other products allows local users to execute arbitrary code with administrator privileges and conduct DLL hijacking attacks via a Trojan horse DLL in the "application directory", as demonstrated with the USP10.dll, RichEd20.dll, NTMarta.dll and SRClient.dll DLLs.
Timeline
ID reserved
By mitre
- 13 months later
· 13 months later
Published
- 8 years later
· 8 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.0 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.82% · top 43% of all CVEs (9 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.8.
Affected products
n/a
- affected n/a
References
2
- [oss-security] 20160111 CVE-2016-1281: TrueCrypt and VeraCrypt Windows installers allow arbitrary code execution with elevation of privilege (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- 20160108 Executable installers are vulnerable^WEVIL (case 20): TrueCrypt's installers allow arbitrary (remote) code execution and escalation of privilege (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_FULLDISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2016-2380 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2016-1281)Record last updated .