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VulnerabilityPublished

CVE-2024-7228: Avast Free Antivirus · Link Following

Affects Avast Free AntivirusSource CVE Database V5

0

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.1 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.0 base score
6.1Medium
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 23% 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:N/I:L/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

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2024-7228, organizations should implement the following specific measures: 1) Restrict local user permissions rigorously to prevent unauthorized code execution at low privilege levels, using least privilege principles and application whitelisting where possible. 2) Monitor and audit filesystem changes, particularly symbolic link creation, to detect suspicious activity indicative of exploitation attempts. 3) Temporarily disable or limit the Avast Service's ability to follow symbolic links if configurable, or isolate antivirus services in hardened environments. 4) Maintain up-to-date backups and system snapshots to recover quickly from potential denial-of-service impacts. 5) Closely monitor Avast vendor communications for patches or updates addressing this vulnerability and apply them promptly upon release. 6) Employ endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools to identify and block local privilege escalation or code execution attempts that could lead to exploitation. 7) Educate users and administrators about the risks of executing untrusted code locally, reducing the likelihood of initial compromise. These targeted actions go beyond generic advice by focusing on controlling local access vectors and monitoring symbolic link manipulations specific to this vulnerability.

Description

Avast Free Antivirus Link Following Denial-of-Service Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows local attackers to create a denial-of-service condition 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 create a folder. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to create a denial-of-service condition on the system. Was ZDI-CAN-22806.

References

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