CVE-2023-48677 is a local privilege escalation vulnerability identified in Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office and related Acronis products on Windows platforms. The root cause is a DLL hijacking issue (CWE-427), where an attacker with limited privileges can exploit the way the software loads dynamic link libraries (DLLs). By placing a malicious DLL in a location where the application searches for DLLs before the legitimate ones, an attacker can cause the application to load and execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges. This vulnerability affects Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office versions prior to build 40901, Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent versions before build 39378, and Acronis Cyber Protect 16 versions before build 39938. The CVSS v3.0 base score is 7.3, indicating a high severity level. The attack vector is local (AV:L), requiring the attacker to have local access with low privileges (PR:L), and user interaction is required (UI:R). The impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability is high (C:H/I:H/A:H), meaning successful exploitation can lead to full system compromise, data theft, or disruption. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no patch links are provided in the data, suggesting that remediation may require updating to the specified fixed builds once available or applying vendor guidance. The vulnerability is significant because Acronis Cyber Protect products are widely used for backup, recovery, and endpoint protection, making them attractive targets for attackers seeking to escalate privileges on protected systems.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a substantial risk, especially in sectors relying heavily on Acronis Cyber Protect solutions for data protection and endpoint security, such as finance, healthcare, government, and critical infrastructure. Exploitation could allow attackers to bypass security controls, gain administrative access, and potentially disable or manipulate backup and recovery processes, leading to data loss, ransomware persistence, or operational disruption. Given the high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, organizations could face regulatory repercussions under GDPR if personal data is compromised. The local attack vector means that insider threats or attackers who gain initial foothold through phishing or other means could leverage this vulnerability to escalate privileges and move laterally within networks. The requirement for user interaction somewhat limits remote exploitation but does not eliminate risk in environments where users have local access or where attackers can trick users into executing malicious actions.

European organizations should prioritize upgrading affected Acronis products to the fixed builds (40901 for Cyber Protect Home Office, 39378 for Cloud Agent, and 39938 for Cyber Protect 16) as soon as vendor patches are available. Until patches are applied, organizations should implement strict local access controls and monitoring to detect suspicious DLL loading or privilege escalation attempts. Employ application whitelisting and integrity monitoring to prevent unauthorized DLLs from being loaded. Educate users about the risks of executing untrusted files or interacting with unexpected prompts to reduce the likelihood of user interaction exploitation. Additionally, conduct regular audits of installed software versions and maintain an inventory of endpoints running vulnerable Acronis products. Network segmentation and the principle of least privilege should be enforced to limit the impact of any local compromise. Finally, monitor security advisories from Acronis for updates or additional mitigation guidance.