CVE-2024-7240
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 · uneditedF-Secure Total Link Following Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability. This vulnerability allows local attackers to escalate privileges on affected installations of F-Secure Total. User interaction on the part of an administrator is required to exploit this vulnerability. The specific flaw exists within the WithSecure plugin hosting service. By creating a symbolic link, an attacker can abuse the service to create a file. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of SYSTEM. Was ZDI-CAN-23005.
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 confidenceThe vulnerability is a symbolic link following issue in the WithSecure plugin hosting service of F-Secure Total. An attacker can create a malicious symbolic link that, when processed by the service, causes the service to create or write a file to an arbitrary location with elevated SYSTEM privileges, leading to arbitrary code execution.
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= 19.2CVSS 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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Identify installed F-Secure Total versionOpen the F-Secure Total application and navigate to Help > About, or check the installed programs list in Windows Control Panel to locate the exact version numberAffected if The installed version is 19.2 exactly
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Verify WithSecure plugin hosting service is presentOpen Windows Services (services.msc) and locate the WithSecure plugin hosting service, or run 'sc query' to enumerate services containing 'WithSecure' or 'plugin' in the nameAffected if The WithSecure plugin hosting service exists and is running on the system
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Locate plugin directories used by the serviceCheck common F-Secure installation paths such as C:\Program Files\F-Secure\Total or C:\Program Files (x86)\F-Secure\Total for subdirectories named 'plugins', 'plugindata', or similar, or inspect service configuration for plugin path settingsAffected if Plugin directories exist and are writable by the service account
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Inspect plugin directories for symbolic linksUse 'dir /AL' or 'Get-ChildItem -Force' in PowerShell to list reparse points (symbolic links) within identified plugin directories, also check parent directories for any newly created symbolic linksAffected if Any symbolic links exist in or near plugin directories that point to system locations such as Windows\System32 or Program Files
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Audit recent file creations in sensitive directoriesReview Windows Event Logs for Event ID 4656 or use File Explorer/command line to check for recently created or modified files in Windows\System32, Windows\Tasks, or other system directories, correlating timestamps with plugin service activityAffected if Files appear in system directories that were not created by legitimate system or F-Secure update processes
The system is affected if F-Secure Total version 19.2 is installed, the WithSecure plugin hosting service is active, and any symbolic links exist in plugin directories or unexpected files appear in system 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 vendor-supplied patches for F-Secure Total. Until patches are available, restrict administrative privileges and monitor the system for unauthorized symbolic link creation in plugin directories.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-7240 — 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-2024-7240 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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