Uncontrolled Search Path (DLL Hijack)Weakness · CWE-427

CVE-2024-8766

MEDIUM · 6.7 CVSS v3.0 Published 2024-09-16
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
67/100
Remediation priority · Elevated

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
Local privilege escalation due to DLL hijacking vulnerability. The following products are affected: Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent (Windows) before build 38235, Acronis Cyber Protect 16 (Windows) before build 39169.

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 local privilege escalation vulnerability exists in Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent and Acronis Cyber Protect 16 for Windows due to DLL hijacking. The vulnerability allows a local attacker to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges by placing a malicious DLL in a location where the affected application loads libraries from. The vulnerability affects specific builds prior to 38235 for the Cloud Agent and 39169 for Cyber Protect 16.

MitigationUpgrade Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent to build 38235 or higher, and Acronis Cyber Protect 16 to build 39169 or higher. Organizations should verify current installed versions and apply the appropriate updates.

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
High
Privileges
Low
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/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 checks

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

  1. Check if Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent is installed
    Open Windows Registry Editor and navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ or use PowerShell: Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Where-Object {$_.DisplayName -like '*Acronis*Cyber*Protect*Cloud*Agent*'} | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion
    Affected if The product is installed with a build version lower than 38235
  2. Check if Acronis Cyber Protect 16 is installed
    Open Windows Registry Editor and navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ or use PowerShell: Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Where-Object {$_.DisplayName -like '*Acronis*Cyber*Protect*16*'} | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion
    Affected if The product is installed with a build version lower than 39169
  3. Verify the exact build number via Acronis service information
    Open Services panel (services.msc), locate the Acronis service, right-click and select Properties, or check the version information in the Acronis installation directory typically found under C:\Program Files\Acronis\
    Affected if The build number displayed is prior to 38235 for Cloud Agent or prior to 39169 for Cyber Protect 16

If either Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent (build < 38235) or Acronis Cyber Protect 16 (build < 39169) is installed and running on the system, the environment is vulnerable to DLL hijacking privilege escalation.

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

Upgrade Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent to build 38235 or higher, and Acronis Cyber Protect 16 to build 39169 or higher. Organizations should verify current installed versions and apply the appropriate updates.

Recommended fix High confidence

Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent: build 38235 or later; Acronis Cyber Protect 16: build 39169 or later

  1. Identify which Acronis product is installed: Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent or Acronis Cyber Protect 16
  2. For Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent (Windows): upgrade to build 38235 or later
  3. For Acronis Cyber Protect 16 (Windows): upgrade to build 39169 or later
  4. Download the updated agent from the Acronis management console or official Acronis download center
  5. Install the updated build on all affected Windows machines
  6. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the agent build number in the Acronis management console
Caveat Routine agent updates; no major breaking changes expected for standard protection functionality

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

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,696.

Scan for this in your stack

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dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2024-8766 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data