CVE-2020-35145
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedAcronis True Image for Windows prior to 2021 Update 3 allowed local privilege escalation due to a DLL hijacking vulnerability in multiple components, aka an Untrusted Search Path issue.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceAcronis True Image for Windows prior to 2021 Update 3 contains a DLL hijacking (Untrusted Search Path) vulnerability in multiple components. The application loads Dynamic Link Libraries from untrusted locations, allowing a local attacker to place a malicious DLL in a location from which the privileged application will load it, resulting in arbitrary code execution with elevated privileges.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 2021CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm Acronis True Image is installedCheck for the presence of Acronis True Image in the system: Open Programs and Features (appwiz.cpl) or check C:\Program Files\Acronis\True Image for the installation directoryAffected if Acronis True Image for Windows is found on the system
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Identify the installed versionRight-click the Acronis True Image executable in Program Files, select Properties, then look at the Version tab, or run: reg query 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{GUID}' /v DisplayVersion (find the GUID from the uninstall registry key under Acronis)Affected if The displayed version is 2021 or any build prior to Update 3 (the exact Update 3 build number varies but is a later release than the initial 2021 release)
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Check if the application runs from writable directoriesExamine the application's search path and parent directories for weak permissions: Right-click the Acronis installation folder in C:\Program Files\Acronis\True Image, select Properties, then Security, and verify that standard users or low-privilege accounts lack Write/Modify permissions to those directoriesAffected if Non-admin users have Write access to any directory in Acronis True Image's executable path, which would allow them to place a malicious DLL for hijacking
A system is affected if Acronis True Image 2021 (any build before Update 3) is installed and directories in its search path are writable by untrusted users, allowing DLL injection during application execution.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade to Acronis True Image 2021 Update 3 or later. As a compensating control, restrict write access to directories in the application's search path to prevent untrusted DLL injection.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-35145 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-35145 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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