CVE-2016-20057 Netgate CVE debrief

Who should care

System administrators and security teams responsible for managing and securing NETGATE Registry Cleaner installations should be aware of this vulnerability. Specifically, those with NETGATE Registry Cleaner build 16.0.205 installed on their systems should prioritize patching or mitigating this vulnerability to prevent potential privilege escalation attacks.

Technical summary

The NETGATE Registry Cleaner build 16.0.205 contains an unquoted service path vulnerability in the NGRegClnSrv service. This vulnerability allows local attackers to escalate privileges by placing a malicious executable in the unquoted path and triggering service restart or system reboot to execute code with LocalSystem privileges. The vulnerability is characterized by the following CVSS metrics: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X.

Defensive priority

High

Recommended defensive actions

• Apply the vendor-provided patch or update to a version that addresses this vulnerability.
• Implement compensating controls such as restricting write access to the service binary path.
• Monitor system logs for suspicious activity related to the NGRegClnSrv service.
• Consider replacing or disabling the NGRegClnSrv service if not required.
• Perform regular vulnerability scans and penetration testing to identify similar issues.

Evidence notes

The CVE record was published on 2026-04-04T14:16:18.223Z and has not been modified since then. The NVD entry is currently Analyzed. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-428. The Exploit-DB has an entry for this vulnerability (40539).

Official resources