# CVE-2024-5102: Elevation of Privelage via symlinked file in Avast Antivirus

> A low-privileged user can exploit a race condition in the repair function to elevate privileges to SYSTEM and execute arbitrary code.

- **Severity:** High 7.3 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:P/PR:L/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H`)
- **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:** 10 Jun 2024
- **Updated:** 1 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-75r7-wf67-87f9

## What is CVE-2024-5102?

CVE-2024-5102 is a high-severity vulnerability in Avast Antivirus, published on 10 Jun 2024. 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

A sym-linked file accessed via the repair function in Avast Antivirus <24.2 on Windows may allow user to elevate privilege to delete arbitrary files or run processes as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM. The vulnerability exists within the "Repair" (settings -> troubleshooting -> repair) feature, which attempts to delete a file in the current user's AppData directory as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM. A low-privileged user can make a pseudo-symlink and a junction folder and point to a file on the system. This can provide a low-privileged user an Elevation of Privilege to win a race-condition which will re-create the system files and make Windows callback to a specially-crafted file which could be used to launch a privileged shell instance.

This issue affects Avast Antivirus prior to 24.2.

Weakness: CWE-59 (Improper Link Resolution Before File Access), CWE-1284 (Improper Validation of Specified Quantity in Input)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-5102?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Avast Antivirus.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-5102?

No fix has been published for CVE-2024-5102 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2024-5102 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-5102 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Avast Antivirus

- [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-2024-5102 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-5102 is a high-severity vulnerability in Avast Antivirus, published on 10 Jun 2024. 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-2024-5102 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Avast Antivirus. 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-2024-5102/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-5102/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-5102
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-5102
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-5102

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-5102/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.