{"id":"CVE-2026-106030","kind":"vulnerability","aliases":["CVE-2026-106030"],"related":[],"title":"NordVPN for Windows: local users can stop unprotected Windows services","description":"NordVPN for Windows allows local attackers to stop unprotected Windows system services and change their startup type to Manual via named pipes. The NordVPN user-mode application allows a low-privileged attacker to act as a trusted process and connect to the named pipe \"\\\\.\\pipe\\nord-security\\v1\\NordVpnService\\Server\". The attacker can then invoke the \"ISettingsGrpc.StopService\" and \"ISettingsGrpc.ChangeServiceStartType\" methods with an arbitrary service name, allowing them to stop any unprotected Windows service and change its startup type. This leads to denial of service of critical system services. Services protected by Windows (PPL processes, Windows Tamper Protection), such as Windows Defender, cannot be stopped or reconfigured.\n\n\nThis issue was fixed in version 8.12","summary":"NordVPN for Windows exposes a named pipe that accepts requests from low-privileged local processes. A local attacker can use it to stop unprotected Windows services and change their startup type to Manual, causing denial of service.","severity":"medium","cvss":6.8,"epss":null,"exploited":false,"exploited_at":null,"products":[],"ecosystems":[],"tags":["endpoint","nordvpn","package","windows"],"not_affected_if":["nordvpn-not-installed","version-8.12-or-later"],"how_to_check":"- Check the installed NordVPN version on Windows and compare it against `8.12`\n- unknown","fix":"- Update NordVPN for Windows to `8.12` or later","status":"open","published_at":"2026-10-16T10:18:03+00:00","first_seen_at":"2026-10-23T21:57:12+00:00","triaged_at":"2026-10-25T03:45:11+00:00","updated_at":"2026-10-25T03:45:11+00:00","category":"package","confidence":0.8,"triage":{"at":"2026-10-25T03:45:11Z","model":"claude-haiku-5-5","output":{"fix":"- Update NordVPN for Windows to `8.12` or later","reach":"local","title":"NordVPN for Windows: local users can stop unprotected Windows services","impact":"low","summary":"NordVPN for Windows exposes a named pipe that accepts requests from low-privileged local processes. A local attacker can use it to stop unprotected Windows services and change their startup type to Manual, causing denial of service.","category":"package","nicknames":[],"who_cares":["windows","nordvpn","endpoint"],"confidence":0.8,"needs_auth":"yes","worst_case":"local user stops unprotected Windows services and disables them","analyst_note":"","how_to_check":"- Check the installed NordVPN version on Windows and compare it against `8.12`\n- unknown","needs_analyst":false,"not_affected_if":["nordvpn-not-installed","version-8.12-or-later"],"who_is_affected":"Windows machines running NordVPN for Windows before version 8.12 are exposed, and the attacker must already have a local account on the machine. Machines without NordVPN installed, or with it updated to 8.12 or later, are not affected. Protected services such as Windows Defender cannot be stopped through this flaw.","user_interaction":"no","needs_special_setup":"no","severity_if_unknown":"medium"},"cost_usd":0.000573,"input_tokens":3483,"output_tokens":450,"severity_before":"medium"},"analyst_status":null,"analyst_note":null,"search":"'-106030':13A,16A '-2026':12A,15A '8.12':174C 'accept':29B 'act':94C 'allow':62C,87C,127C 'applic':86C 'arbitrari':124C 'attack':39B,64C,92C,113C 'cannot':163C 'caus':55B 'chang':49B,72C,136C 'connect':100C 'critic':147C 'cve':11A,14A 'defend':162C 'denial':56B,143C 'endpoint':17B 'expos':24B 'fix':171C 'invok':116C 'isettingsgrpc.changeservicestarttype':120C 'isettingsgrpc.stopservice':118C 'issu':169C 'lead':141C 'local':4A,35B,38B,63C 'low':33B,90C 'low-privileg':32B,89C 'manual':54B,77C 'method':121C 'mode':85C 'name':26B,79C,103C,126C 'nord':107C 'nord-secur':106C 'nordvpn':1A,18B,21B,59C,82C 'nordvpnservic':110C 'packag':19B 'pipe':27B,80C,104C,105C 'ppl':154C 'privileg':34B,91C 'process':36B,98C,155C 'protect':151C,158C 'reconfigur':167C 'request':30B 'secur':108C 'server':111C 'servic':10A,47B,58B,70C,125C,134C,145C,149C,150C 'startup':51B,74C,138C 'stop':7A,44B,66C,130C,165C 'system':69C,148C 'tamper':157C 'trust':97C 'type':52B,75C,139C 'unprotect':8A,45B,67C,132C 'use':41B 'user':5A,84C 'user-mod':83C 'v1':109C 'version':173C 'via':78C 'window':3A,9A,20B,23B,46B,61C,68C,133C,153C,156C,161C","nicknames":[],"mitigations":[],"who_affected":"Windows machines running NordVPN for Windows before version 8.12 are exposed, and the attacker must already have a local account on the machine. Machines without NordVPN installed, or with it updated to 8.12 or later, are not affected. Protected services such as Windows Defender cannot be stopped through this flaw.","tier":"C","verified":{},"analyst_revisit_at":null,"first_public_at":"2026-10-16T10:18:03+00:00","kev":null,"cvss_vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:L/SA:L/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","cvss_by":"cvd@cert.pl","poc_count":0,"sources":[{"source":"nvd","external_id":"CVE-2026-106030","url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-106030","severity":null,"published_at":"2026-10-16T10:18:03+00:00","modified_at":"2026-10-16T16:00:33+00:00","first_seen_at":"2026-10-23T21:57:12+00:00","fetched_at":"2026-10-23T22:28:55+00:00","note":null}],"documents":[],"notice":"Free to read at a human pace. An API with keys and an MCP server are in preparation; early access: hello@infrastack.ai"}