CVE-2024-7228
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 · uneditedAvast 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.
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 · high confidenceA local privilege escalation vulnerability exists in Avast Free Antivirus where the Avast Service follows symbolic links created by an attacker. By placing a symbolic link in a location the service accesses, a low-privileged attacker can cause the service to create an arbitrary folder, leading to denial of service through resource exhaustion or file system manipulation.
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= 23.11.6090CVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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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Check installed Avast Free Antivirus versionOpen Avast user interface, go to Menu > Settings > About, or check Programs and Features for Avast Free Antivirus versionAffected if Version number equals exactly 23.11.6090
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Verify Avast Service is runningOpen Services console (services.msc) and locate 'Avast Service' or 'Avast Antivirus Service', check if status is RunningAffected if The Avast Service is active and running on the system
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Identify directories accessed by Avast ServiceUse process monitoring tools (Process Monitor from Sysinternals) to observe file system activity of the Avast Service process, focusing on directories it writes to or accessesAffected if The service accesses directories where low-privileged users have write permissions
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Check for symlink creation opportunitiesInspect permissions on directories identified as service-accessible. Use icacls or file explorer Security tab to verify if standard users can create symbolic links in those locationsAffected if Low-privileged users have permissions to create symbolic links in directories that the Avast Service writes to or modifies
System is affected if Avast Free Antivirus version 23.11.6090 is installed AND the Avast Service is running AND low-privileged users can create symbolic links in service-accessible directories.
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 dataApply the latest Avast Free Antivirus update to obtain the vendor patch. Restrict file system permissions around the Avast Service directories to prevent low-privileged users from creating symbolic links in service-accessible locations.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-7228 — 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-2024-7228 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data