CVE-2024-7230
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 Cleanup Premium Link Following Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows local attackers to escalate privileges on affected installations of Avast Cleanup Premium. 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 Cleanup Service. By creating a symbolic link, an attacker can abuse the service to delete a file. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of SYSTEM. Was ZDI-CAN-22893.
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 confidenceAvast Cleanup Premium contains a link following vulnerability in its Windows service. The service performs file deletion operations without properly validating symbolic links, allowing a local attacker with low-privileged code execution to create a symlink that causes the SYSTEM-context service to delete arbitrary files, leading to privilege escalation to SYSTEM.
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= 23.4CVSS 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
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/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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Verify Avast Cleanup Premium is installedCheck registry key at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{InstallLocation} or look for 'Avast Cleanup Premium' in Programs and FeaturesAffected if The software is not present on the system, the vulnerability does not apply
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Identify installed version of Avast Cleanup PremiumRun 'wmic product get name,version' or check registry at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Avast\Cleanup\Version to retrieve the installed version numberAffected if The installed version equals 23.4 exactly - only this specific version is affected
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Verify the Cleanup service exists and is runningOpen Services console (services.msc) and locate 'Avast Cleanup' service, or run 'sc query avastcleanup' from command promptAffected if The service exists and is running - the vulnerability requires the service to be active to trigger arbitrary file deletion via symlink abuse
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Confirm service executes in SYSTEM contextRun 'sc qc avastcleanup' to query the service configuration and check the binary path, or use Task Manager to view the service process contextAffected if Service runs under SYSTEM or elevated context - the privilege escalation requires the service to have higher privileges than the attacker
You are affected if Avast Cleanup Premium version 23.4 is installed AND the Avast Cleanup service is running on your system.
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 vendor patch when available. In the interim, restrict user creation of symlinks via NTFS permissions and monitor the Cleanup service for suspicious file operation behavior.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,088.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-7230 — 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-2024-7230 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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