CVE-2025-24828 is a local privilege escalation vulnerability classified under CWE-426, which pertains to DLL hijacking. This vulnerability affects the Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent for Windows versions prior to build 39378. DLL hijacking occurs when an application improperly loads dynamic link libraries (DLLs) from untrusted directories, allowing an attacker with local access to place a malicious DLL that the application will load instead of the legitimate one. Exploiting this vulnerability enables an attacker to escalate their privileges on the affected system, potentially gaining SYSTEM-level access from a lower-privileged user account. Since the vulnerability requires local access, the attacker must already have some level of access to the target machine. There are no known exploits in the wild at the time of publication, and no official patches have been linked yet. The vulnerability was reserved and published in January 2025, indicating it is a recent discovery. The affected product, Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent, is a widely used endpoint protection and backup solution, often deployed in enterprise environments to secure and manage endpoints. The lack of a CVSS score necessitates an assessment based on the nature of the vulnerability, its impact, and exploitation complexity.

For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability could be significant, especially for enterprises relying on Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent for endpoint security and backup management. Successful exploitation would allow an attacker with local access to escalate privileges, potentially compromising the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of critical systems. This could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data, disruption of backup and recovery operations, and further lateral movement within corporate networks. Given that many European organizations operate under strict data protection regulations such as GDPR, a breach resulting from this vulnerability could also lead to regulatory penalties and reputational damage. The medium severity rating reflects the requirement for local access and the absence of remote exploitation, which somewhat limits the attack surface. However, the strategic importance of the affected systems in protecting enterprise data and infrastructure elevates the risk profile. Organizations in sectors such as finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and government, which heavily depend on endpoint protection and backup solutions, are particularly at risk.

1. Immediate deployment of the latest Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent build 39378 or later once available, as this will contain the fix for the DLL hijacking vulnerability. 2. Until patches are released, restrict local access to systems running the affected agent by enforcing strict access controls and monitoring for unauthorized local logins. 3. Implement application whitelisting and integrity checking mechanisms to detect and prevent unauthorized DLLs from being loaded by the agent. 4. Conduct regular audits of the directories from which the Acronis agent loads DLLs to ensure no untrusted or unexpected DLL files are present. 5. Employ endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to monitor for suspicious activities indicative of privilege escalation attempts. 6. Educate system administrators and users about the risks of local privilege escalation and the importance of maintaining secure local environments. 7. Review and harden group policies and local security policies to minimize the number of users with local access rights that could exploit this vulnerability. 8. Monitor vendor communications closely for official patches and advisories and plan for rapid deployment once available.