# 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.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 9 May 2025
- **Updated:** 13 Oct 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-57f7-wfqr-87r7

## 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.

Weakness: CWE-59 (Improper Link Resolution Before File Access), CWE-367 (Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition)

## 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.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2024-13944 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-13944 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: AVG CleanUp. 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-2024-13944/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-13944/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-13944
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-13944
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-13944

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-13944/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.