Avast
CVE-2017-8308
HIGH
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2025 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Least privilege enforcement
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Impact | CVSS score of 7.5 (HIGH). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction not required. Public proof-of-concept exploit code is available. EPSS exploitation probability: 0.69%. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A remote attacker could escalate privileges to gain unauthorized elevated access by sending crafted requests to the affected application. No authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability. |
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Alert meAnalysisAI
In Avast Antivirus before v17, an unprivileged user (and thus malware or a virus) can mark an arbitrary process as Trusted from the perspective of the Avast product. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
RemediationAI
No vendor patch is available at time of analysis. Monitor vendor advisories for updates. Apply principle of least privilege, validate privilege transitions, implement proper role separation.
Affects your stack
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Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
This vulnerability is classified as Improper Privilege Management (CWE-269), which allows attackers to escalate privileges to gain unauthorized elevated access. In Avast Antivirus before v17, an unprivileged user (and thus malware or a virus) can mark an arbitrary process as Trusted from the perspective of the Avast product. This bypasses the Self-Defense feature of the product, opening a door to subsequent attack on many of its components. Affected products include: Avast Antivirus.
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- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
DescriptionCVE.org
In Avast Antivirus before v17, an unprivileged user (and thus malware or a virus) can mark an arbitrary process as Trusted from the perspective of the Avast product. This bypasses the Self-Defense feature of the product, opening a door to subsequent attack on many of its components.
Threat Intelligence Overview
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Privilege escalation occurs when an attacker leverages flaws in access control mechanisms to gain permissions beyond what they were originally granted.
Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org
In Avast Antivirus before v17, using the LPC interface API exposed by the AvastSVC.exe Windows service, it is possible t
An issue was discovered in Avast Antivirus before 20. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely
Privilege escalation vulnerability in the Self-Defense driver of Avast Antivirus prior to 20.8 allows a local user with
Privilege escalation vulnerability in the Sandbox component of Avast Antivirus prior to 20.4 allows a local sandboxed co
Sandbox component in Avast Antivirus prior to 20.4 has an insecure permission which could be abused by local user to con
Local privilege escalation in Avast Antivirus 25.11 allows non-privileged Windows users to execute arbitrary code as SYS
Avast allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory corruption) and possibly execute arbitrary code via a
Heap-based buffer overflow in the Avast virtualization driver (aswSnx.sys) in Avast Internet Security, Pro Antivirus, Pr
Privilege escalation vulnerability in Avast Antivirus prior to 20.4 allows a local user to gain elevated privileges by "
Multiple privilege escalation vulnerabilities in Avast Antivirus prior to 20.4 allow a local user to gain elevated privi
An issue was discovered in Avast Antivirus before 20. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack c
An issue was discovered in Avast antivirus before 19.8 and AVG antivirus before 19.8. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), th
GitHub PoC
Exploit-DB