CVE-2016-20060

Hotspot Shield 6.0.3 Unquoted Service Path Privilege Escalation

CVSS 8.5 HIGHEPSS 0.2%CWE-428

Vexday Risk Score

41Attention

SSVC decision (CISA)

Attend

PoC available → attend closely

CVSS 8.5EPSS 0.2%KEV nãoPoC públicaNuclei —Metasploit —Patch —

Lifecycle

04 Apr 2026Published on NVD

Recommendation: Plan a near-term fix — a public PoC already exists.

Hotspot Shield 6.0.3 contains an unquoted service path vulnerability in the hshld service binary that allows local attackers to escalate privileges by injecting malicious executables. Attackers can place executable files in the service path and upon service restart or system reboot, the malicious code executes with LocalSystem privileges.

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

Affected products

Hotspotshield · Hotspot Shield

public PoCs found — 1

cve_referencewww.exploit-db.com/exploits/40528unverified

⚠ Public resources, to assess the exposure of systems you control or are authorized to test. Test only with authorization.

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References

https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40528 https://www.hotspotshield.com https://www.hotspotshield.com/download/https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/hotspot-shield-unquoted-service-path-privilege-escalation