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CVE-2016-1281 Idrix CVE debrief

CVE-2016-1281 describes an untrusted search path / DLL hijacking issue in affected installers for TrueCrypt 7.1a and 7.2, and VeraCrypt before 1.17-BETA. The NVD record rates it HIGH (CVSS 7.8) and notes that a local attacker with user interaction could execute code with administrator privileges by placing a Trojan horse DLL in the application directory.

Vendor
Idrix
Product
CVE-2016-1281
CVSS
HIGH 7.8
CISA KEV
Not listed in stored evidence
Original CVE published
2017-01-23
Original CVE updated
2026-05-13
Advisory published
2017-01-23
Advisory updated
2026-05-13

Who should care

Administrators, endpoint security teams, and users who still deploy or maintain affected TrueCrypt or VeraCrypt installers should treat this as important. It is especially relevant anywhere installers may be run with elevated privileges or from writable locations.

Technical summary

The vulnerability is classified as CWE-426 (untrusted search path). According to the CVE description, the installer may load a malicious DLL from the application directory instead of a trusted location, enabling DLL hijacking and elevation of privileges during installer execution. NVD lists affected versions for TrueCrypt 7.1a and 7.2, and VeraCrypt versions before 1.17-BETA. The CVSS vector is AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H, indicating a local attack that requires user interaction.

Defensive priority

High for any environment that may still use the affected installers. The attack requires local access and user interaction, but the impact includes administrator-level code execution.

Recommended defensive actions

  • Inventory systems that still use TrueCrypt 7.1a/7.2 or VeraCrypt versions up to 1.16.
  • Upgrade to a VeraCrypt build newer than the affected range; the CVE description marks versions before 1.17-BETA as vulnerable.
  • Retire TrueCrypt installations where possible, since the affected versions are identified in the CVE record and no safe version is provided there.
  • Run installers only from trusted, non-writable locations and ensure application directories are not writable by untrusted users.
  • Monitor for unexpected DLLs in installer/application directories during software deployment and remediation activities.
  • Prefer vendor-supplied installers from official sources and validate the exact product/version before deployment.

Evidence notes

The official NVD record for CVE-2016-1281 lists CWE-426 and a CVSS 3.0 vector of AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. It explicitly identifies vulnerable versions for TrueCrypt 7.1a and 7.2, plus VeraCrypt before 1.17-BETA. The CVE record was published on 2017-01-23 and last modified on 2026-05-13. The supplied references include a Full Disclosure post and an Openwall oss-security post dated January 2016, which align with public disclosure and patch discussion.

Official resources

Public reference material in the corpus dates to January 2016, while the CVE record was published on 2017-01-23 and last modified on 2026-05-13.