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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2024-7227: Avast Free Antivirus · Link Following

Affects Avast Free AntivirusSource CVE Database V5

0

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.8 High.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 09:08 UTC

CVSS 3.0 base score
7.8High
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 28% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 22 Nov 2024

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponised: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

What to do

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
Avast Free AntivirusAffected
  • =23.9.6082
Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2024-7227, organizations should: 1) Monitor Avast's official channels for patches or updates addressing this vulnerability and apply them promptly once available. 2) Restrict local user permissions to the minimum necessary, preventing unauthorized code execution at low privilege levels. 3) Employ application whitelisting and endpoint protection solutions to detect and block suspicious symbolic link creation or manipulation activities. 4) Audit and monitor file system changes and symbolic link creations on systems running Avast Free Antivirus to detect potential exploitation attempts. 5) Consider temporarily disabling or uninstalling the affected Avast Free Antivirus version in high-risk environments until a patch is applied. 6) Educate users about the risks of running untrusted code locally and enforce strict controls on software installation and execution. 7) Use Windows security features such as Controlled Folder Access and User Account Control (UAC) to limit the impact of local privilege escalation attempts. These measures, combined with timely patching, will reduce the attack surface and limit the potential for exploitation.

Description

Avast Free Antivirus AvastSvc Link Following Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows local attackers to escalate privileges on affected installations of Avast Free Antivirus. An attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system in order to exploit this vulnerability. The specific flaw exists within the Avast Service. By creating a symbolic link, an attacker can abuse the service to delete a file. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of SYSTEM. Was ZDI-CAN-22272.

References

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