# CVE-2023-44209: Privilege escalation in Acronis Cyber Protect 17

> Local attackers can escalate privileges via improper soft link handling in Acronis Cyber Protect agents and software.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.6 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 4 Oct 2023
- **Updated:** 5 Mar 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-3q5r-87hx-pv77

## What is CVE-2023-44209?

CVE-2023-44209 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Acronis Cyber Protect 17, published on 4 Oct 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

Local privilege escalation due to improper soft link handling. The following products are affected: Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent (Linux, macOS, Windows) before build 29051, Acronis Cyber Protect 17 (Linux, macOS, Windows) before build 41186.

Weakness: CWE-610 (Externally Controlled Reference to a Resource in Another Sphere)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-44209?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Acronis Agent.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-44209?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-44209 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-44209 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-44209 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Acronis Cyber Protect 17

- [CVE-2022-45451](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-45451/): Privilege escalation in Acronis Agent (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2023-41743](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-41743/): Privilege escalation in Acronis Cyber Protect 15 (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2026-28727](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-28727/): Privilege escalation in Acronis Cyber Protect 17 (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2023-41744](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-41744/): Privilege escalation in Acronis Agent (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2021-44204](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-44204/): Local privilege escalation via named pipe due to improper access control checks (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-44209 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-44209 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Acronis Cyber Protect 17, published on 4 Oct 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-44209 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Acronis Cyber Protect 17. 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-2023-44209/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-44209/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-44209
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-44209
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-44209

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-44209/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.