CVE-2026-18759: An improper authentication and path traversal vulnerability exists in ASUSTOR Backup Plan and ASUSTOR EZ Sync.
The background service of ABP or AES runs as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM and implements a file-based inter-process communication (IPC) mechanism protected by AES encryption. Because the encryption key file is readable by standard users and protected using DPAPI. Any authenticated local user can recover the key and forge valid IPC requests. Furthermore, the service does not check the identity of the requesting process and validates destination paths using an insufficient substring check. A local attacker can submit crafted encrypted requests containing directory traversal sequences to perform arbitrary file reads and arbitrary file writes as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM, leading to full local privilege escalation. Affected products and versions include: ABP (ASUSTOR Backup Plan) 2.0.7.10171 and earlier as well as AES (ASUSTOR EZSync) 1.1.1.3113 and earlier.
Affected Software
Remediation
Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.
- Upgrade
Upgrade
ASUSTOR Backup Plan (ABP)to a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 2.0.7.10171 - Upgrade
Upgrade
ASUSTOR EZ Sync (AES)to a version that resolves this vulnerability.Fixed in 1.1.1.3113 - Compensating control
Because the ABP/AES background service runs as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM and uses a file-based IPC mechanism, restrict local access to the service’s IPC mechanism so only trusted processes/users can make requests.
- Operational
Given that any authenticated local user can recover the encryption key and forge valid IPC requests, rotate/replace any credentials or keys used by the ABP/AES IPC mechanism after applying the vendor fix.