CVE-2024-13944 Privilege escalation in CleanUp
Local attackers can escalate privileges to SYSTEM via symbolic link manipulation and TOCTTOU race conditions in Norton Utilities, Avast CleanUp, and AVG TuneUp.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2024-13944?
CVE-2024-13944 is a high-severity vulnerability in AVG CleanUp, published on 9 May 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Link Following Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in NortonUtilitiesSvc in Norton Utilities Ultimate Version 24.2.16862.6344 on Windows 10 Pro x64 allows local attackers to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of SYSTEM via the creation of a symbolic link and leveraging a TOCTTOU (time-of-check to time-of-use) attack.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-13944?
How do I fix CVE-2024-13944?
No fix has been published for CVE-2024-13944 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2024-13944 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-13944 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-57f7-wfqr-87r7.