{"id":"CVE-2019-12578","aliases":["EUVD-2019-4172","GHSA-rrp6-fm72-rh56"],"status":"published","title":"A vulnerability in the London Trust Media Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN Client v82 for Linux...","description":"A vulnerability in the London Trust Media Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN Client v82 for Linux could allow an authenticated, local attacker to run arbitrary code with elevated privileges. The openvpn_launcher.64 binary is setuid root. This binary executes /opt/pia/openvpn-64/openvpn, passing the parameters provided from the command line. Care was taken to programmatically disable potentially dangerous openvpn parameters; however, the --route-pre-down parameter can be used. This parameter accepts an arbitrary path to a script/program to be executed when OpenVPN exits. The --script-security parameter also needs to be passed to allow for this action to be taken, and --script-security is not currently in the disabled parameter list. A local unprivileged user can pass a malicious script/binary to the --route-pre-down option, which will be executed as root when openvpn is stopped.","severity":{"version":"3.0","score":7.8,"vector":"CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high","assessor":"primary","from":"nvd"},"epss":{"day":"2026-11-10","score":0.00808,"percentile":0.57158,"model":"v2026.06.15"},"facts":{"in_kev":false,"known_exploited":false,"public_exploit":false,"fix_available":false},"cwes":["CWE-88"],"published":"2019-07-11T19:51:31Z","modified":"2026-06-17T02:14:54Z","products":[{"vendor":"londontrustmedia","product":"private_internet_access_vpn_client"}],"references":[{"url":"https://github.com/mirchr/security-research/blob/master/vulnerabilities/PIA/CVE-2019-12578.txt","tags":["x_refsource_MISC","x_transferred","Exploit","Third Party Advisory"]},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-12578"},{"url":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-rrp6-fm72-rh56"}],"sources":{"cve":[{"id":"CVE-2019-12578","description":"A vulnerability in the London Trust Media Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN Client v82 for Linux could allow an authenticated, local attacker to run arbitrary code with elevated privileges. The openvpn_launcher.64 binary is setuid root. This binary executes /opt/pia/openvpn-64/openvpn, passing the parameters provided from the command line. Care was taken to programmatically disable potentially dangerous openvpn parameters; however, the --route-pre-down parameter can be used. This parameter accepts an arbitrary path to a script/program to be executed when OpenVPN exits. The --script-security parameter also needs to be passed to allow for this action to be taken, and --script-security is not currently in the disabled parameter list. A local unprivileged user can pass a malicious script/binary to the --route-pre-down option, which will be executed as root when openvpn is stopped.","status":"published","published":"2019-07-11T19:51:31Z","modified":"2024-08-04T23:24:39.226Z","updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:20:23.697579Z"}],"euvd":[{"id":"EUVD-2019-4172","description":"A vulnerability in the London Trust Media Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN Client v82 for Linux could allow an authenticated, local attacker to run arbitrary code with elevated privileges. The openvpn_launcher.64 binary is setuid root. This binary executes /opt/pia/openvpn-64/openvpn, passing the parameters provided from the command line. Care was taken to programmatically disable potentially dangerous openvpn parameters; however, the --route-pre-down parameter can be used. This parameter accepts an arbitrary path to a script/program to be executed when OpenVPN exits. The --script-security parameter also needs to be passed to allow for this action to be taken, and --script-security is not currently in the disabled parameter list. A local unprivileged user can pass a malicious script/binary to the --route-pre-down option, which will be executed as root when openvpn is stopped.","status":"published","published":"2019-07-11T19:51:31Z","modified":"2024-08-04T23:24:39Z","updated_at":"2026-11-03T02:40:45.434408Z"}],"ghsa":[{"id":"GHSA-rrp6-fm72-rh56","title":"A vulnerability in the London Trust Media Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN Client v82 for Linux...","description":"A vulnerability in the London Trust Media Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN Client v82 for Linux could allow an authenticated, local attacker to run arbitrary code with elevated privileges. The openvpn_launcher.64 binary is setuid root. This binary executes /opt/pia/openvpn-64/openvpn, passing the parameters provided from the command line. Care was taken to programmatically disable potentially dangerous openvpn parameters; however, the --route-pre-down parameter can be used. This parameter accepts an arbitrary path to a script/program to be executed when OpenVPN exits. The --script-security parameter also needs to be passed to allow for this action to be taken, and --script-security is not currently in the disabled parameter list. A local unprivileged user can pass a malicious script/binary to the --route-pre-down option, which will be executed as root when openvpn is stopped.","status":"published","published":"2022-05-24T16:50:07Z","modified":"2023-01-28T05:06:04Z","updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:44:24.376453Z"}],"nvd":[{"id":"CVE-2019-12578","description":"A vulnerability in the London Trust Media Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN Client v82 for Linux could allow an authenticated, local attacker to run arbitrary code with elevated privileges. The openvpn_launcher.64 binary is setuid root. This binary executes /opt/pia/openvpn-64/openvpn, passing the parameters provided from the command line. Care was taken to programmatically disable potentially dangerous openvpn parameters; however, the --route-pre-down parameter can be used. This parameter accepts an arbitrary path to a script/program to be executed when OpenVPN exits. The --script-security parameter also needs to be passed to allow for this action to be taken, and --script-security is not currently in the disabled parameter list. A local unprivileged user can pass a malicious script/binary to the --route-pre-down option, which will be executed as root when openvpn is stopped.","status":"published","published":"2019-07-11T20:15:13.193Z","modified":"2026-06-17T02:14:54.227Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.0","score":7.8,"vector":"CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high","assessor":"primary"},{"version":"2.0","score":7.2,"vector":"AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C","level":"high","assessor":"primary"}],"cwes":["CWE-88"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:05:19.195714Z"}]}}