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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2026-82964: Gen Digital Avast Free Antivirus, Avast One, Avast Premium Security, Avast Ultimate, Avast Business Security · Improper Preservation of Permissions

Affects Gen Digital Avast Free Antivirus, Avast One, Avast Premium Security, Avast Ultimate, Avast Business SecuritySource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.8 High.

Data as of 31 Oct 2026, 08:20 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
8.8High
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 4% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 16 Sep 2026

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponized: 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 30 Oct 2026.

What to do

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
Gen DigitalAvast Free Antivirus, Avast One, Avast Premium Security, Avast Ultimate, Avast Business SecurityAffected
  • <26.8
Fixed in–
Gen DigitalAVG Antivirus Free, AVG Internet Security, AVG UltimateAffected
  • <26.8
Fixed in–
Gen DigitalNorton Antivirus Plus, Norton 360 Standard, Norton 360 Deluxe, Norton 360 AdvancedAffected
  • <26.8
Fixed in–

AI-suggested

Until a patch is available, users should consider limiting local access to systems running affected versions and monitor for updates from Gen Digital regarding remediation.

Description

CVE-2026-82964 is a high-severity vulnerability in Gen Digital's Avast security products affecting versions prior to 26.8. It involves improper preservation of permissions in the Avast sandbox minifilter driver on Windows, allowing a local low-privileged attacker inside the sandbox to escape file isolation and escalate privileges to SYSTEM. The flaw arises because the driver fails to correctly apply the original security descriptor when virtualizing files, resulting in permissive permissions on virtualized copies. This enables a sandboxed process to rewrite security descriptors, access sensitive files like the SAM database, extract NTLM password hashes, and execute code with SYSTEM privileges.

References

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