# CVE-2019-11230: Path traversal in n/a

> A local administrator can exploit a symlink vulnerability in Avast Antivirus to rename critical files, causing the application to fail on restart.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.4 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 18 Jul 2019
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-32p2-rghv-w56x

## What is CVE-2019-11230?

CVE-2019-11230 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in n/a, published on 18 Jul 2019. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In Avast Antivirus before 19.4, a local administrator can trick the product into renaming arbitrary files by replacing the Logs\Update.log file with a symlink. The next time the product attempts to write to the log file, the target of the symlink is renamed. This defect can be exploited to rename a critical product file (e.g., AvastSvc.exe), causing the product to fail to start on the next system restart.

Weakness: CWE-59 (Improper Link Resolution Before File Access)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-11230?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Avast Antivirus.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-11230?

No fix has been published for CVE-2019-11230 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2019-11230 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-11230 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2025-13032](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-13032/): Race condition in (Free/Inernet Security/Ultimate) Antivirus (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2020-10867](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-10867/): Security feature bypass in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-8307](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-8307/): Missing authorization in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2025-3500](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-3500/): Integer Overflow in Avast Antiviurs 25.1.981.6 on Windows may result in privilege escalation (critical 9.0)
- [CVE-2021-45335](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-45335/): Missing authorization in n/a (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-11230 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-11230 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in n/a, published on 18 Jul 2019. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-11230 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-11230/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-11230/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-11230
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-11230
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-11230

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-11230/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.