Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in Lenovo Transition Application

Summary Description:

A vulnerability was identified in the Lenovo Transition program specific to some Lenovo Yoga, Flex and Miix systems running Windows where a user with local privileges could execute arbitrary code with administrative or system level privileges.

Lenovo Transition is no longer supported, and Lenovo recommends that all users using Lenovo Transition update to the supported Lenovo Yoga Mode Control program by pressing the “Update software” button in Lenovo Transition or by manually uninstalling Lenovo Transition and installing Yoga Mode Control.

Lenovo Transition is a program used in Lenovo Yoga systems running Windows 8.1 and earlier whose function is to transition the system between “Book,” “Laptop” and “Tablet” modes.

Mitigation Strategy for Customers (what you should do to protect yourself):

Uninstall Lenovo Transition and install Yoga Mode Control. To do this, right click on the Lenovo Transition icon in the system tray and select “About” to see what version of Lenovo Transition you are running.

1. If the user is running Lenovo Transition version 1.x, uninstall Lenovo Transition via Programs and Features, and install Lenovo Yoga Mode Control by following the link here.

2. If the user is running Lenovo Transtion version 2.x, open Lenovo Transition, click on “About” and then select the “Update software”.

Follow the prompts to automatically uninstall Lenovo Transition and install Yoga Mode Control, which is the replacement program for Lenovo Transition.

Product Impact:

The following Lenovo systems running Windows 8.1 or earlier:

Edge 15

Flex2 14/Flex2 15

Flex2 14D/Flex2 15D

Flex2 Pro15

Miix 2-10, Miix 2-11

Miix 3-1030

Yoga 11S, Yoga 13

Yoga 2-11, Yoga 2-13, Yoga 2 Pro

Acknowledgements:

Lenovo thanks Security Researcher Viktor Minin.

Revision History:

Revision	Date	Description
1.1	9 January 2017	Added instructions to update Lenovo Transition version 1.0
1.0	29 December 2016	Initial release

Lenovo Security Advisory: LEN-12508

Potential Impact: Local privilege escalation

Severity: High

Scope of Impact: Lenovo-specific

CVE Identifier: CVE-2016-8227

Gurubaran

Gurubaran is a co-founder of Cyber Security News and GBHackers On Security. He has 10+ years of experience as a Security Consultant, Editor, and Analyst in cybersecurity, technology, and communications.