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Vulnerability record · CVE-2018-15490 · published 2 January 2019

CVE-2018-15490: Expressvpn path traversal vulnerability

Expressvpn · Expressvpn

An issue was discovered in ExpressVPN on Windows. The Xvpnd.exe process (which runs as a service with SYSTEM privileges) listens on TCP port 2015, which is used as an RPC interface for communication with the client side of the ExpressVPN application. A JSON-RPC protocol over HTTP is used for communication. The JSON-RPC XVPN.GetPreference and XVPN.SetPreference methods are vulnerable to path traversal, and allow reading and writing files on the file system on behalf of the service.

7.1 CVSS 3.0 High EPSS 0.61% · top 52.9% CWE-22 · Path traversal
7.1CVSS 3.0 base score, v2 6.6
0.61%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
1Affected product versions listed by NVD
2References
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

An issue was discovered in ExpressVPN on Windows. The Xvpnd.exe process (which runs as a service with SYSTEM privileges) listens on TCP port 2015, which is used as an RPC interface for communication with the client side of the ExpressVPN application. A JSON-RPC protocol over HTTP is used for communication. The JSON-RPC XVPN.GetPreference and XVPN.SetPreference methods are vulnerable to path traversal, and allow reading and writing files on the file system on behalf of the service.

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Affected products

1 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
https://medium.com/%40Wflki/https-medium-com-wflki-cve-2018-15490-expressvpn-local-privilege-escalation-d22c86fecc47
https://medium.com/%40Wflki/https-medium-com-wflki-cve-2018-15490-expressvpn-local-privilege-escalation-d22c86fecc47

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Related vulnerabilities

Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.

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Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2018-15490), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-27). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.