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CWE-426Weakness · CWE-426

CVE-2024-7886

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-08-16
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click

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 · unedited
A vulnerability has been found in Scooter Software Beyond Compare up to 3.3.5.15075 and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality in the library 7zxa.dll. The manipulation leads to uncontrolled search path. Attacking locally is a requirement. The real existence of this vulnerability is still doubted at the moment. The vendor explains that a system must be breached before exploiting this issue. They are not planning on making any changes to address it.

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 confidence

A DLL hijacking vulnerability (uncontrolled search path) exists in Beyond Compare's 7zxa.dll library up to version 3.3.5.15075. An attacker with local access could potentially place a malicious DLL in a search path to achieve privilege escalation. The vendor disputes the severity, stating system compromise is required first.

MitigationSince the vendor will not issue a patch, remediate by removing the vulnerable 7zxa.dll if unused, ensuring the application loads DLLs only from secure directories (using absolute paths or safe DLL search mode), or restricting file system permissions on writable directories in the DLL search path.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS 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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify if Beyond Compare is installed
    Check common installation paths: %ProgramFiles%\Beyond Compare 4, %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Beyond Compare 4, or search for 'BCompare.exe' using: Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\' -Recurse -Filter 'BCompare.exe' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    Affected if Beyond Compare is found on the system
  2. Determine the installed Beyond Compare version
    Right-click BCompare.exe, select Properties, then view the Details tab for Product Version. Alternatively, run: (Get-Item 'C:\Program Files\Beyond Compare 4\BCompare.exe').VersionInfo.ProductVersion
    Affected if Version is 3.3.5.15075 or lower
  3. Locate the 7zxa.dll file
    Search for 7zxa.dll in the Beyond Compare installation directory and subfolders: Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\Program Files\Beyond Compare 4' -Recurse -Filter '7zxa.dll' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    Affected if 7zxa.dll exists in the Beyond Compare directory tree
  4. Check if the DLL search path includes writable directories
    Review system PATH environment variable for world-writable directories, and check ACLs on the Beyond Compare installation folder: Get-Acl 'C:\Program Files\Beyond Compare 4' | Select-Object Owner, AccessToString
    Affected if Any directory in the DLL search path (PATH) or the application directory is writable by unprivileged users
  5. Verify the specific 7zxa.dll version if found
    If 7zxa.dll exists, right-click > Properties > Details to view File Version, or use: (Get-Item 'C:\Program Files\Beyond Compare 4\7zxa.dll').VersionInfo.FileVersion
    Affected if 7zxa.dll version is 3.3.5.15075 or if version info is absent (older/unpatched copy)

A user is affected if Beyond Compare version 3.3.5.15075 or lower is installed with 7zxa.dll present and any directory in the DLL search path is writable by unprivileged users.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Since the vendor will not issue a patch, remediate by removing the vulnerable 7zxa.dll if unused, ensuring the application loads DLLs only from secure directories (using absolute paths or safe DLL search mode), or restricting file system permissions on writable directories in the DLL search path.

Recommended fix High confidence
  1. Ensure Beyond Compare is installed in a secure directory with restricted write permissions
  2. Verify that the application directory (typically C:\Program Files\Beyond Compare or similar) is not writable by standard users
  3. Remove any non-administrative users from having write access to the Beyond Compare installation folder
  4. Ensure the working directory when launching Beyond Compare is controlled and not writable by untrusted users
  5. Consider running Beyond Compare with elevated privileges only when necessary and after verifying the DLL path integrity
  6. Implement application whitelisting policies to prevent loading of unsigned or unexpected DLLs from arbitrary paths

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,750
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-7886 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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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