8.8
HIGH CVSS 3.1
CVE-2026-82964
Avast sandbox privilege escalation via unpreserved DACLs on virtualized files in aswSnx.sys
Description

Improper preservation of permissions in the Avast sandbox minifilter driver (aswSnx.sys) on Windows allows a local, low-privileged attacker executing inside the sandbox to escape file isolation and escalate to SYSTEM. When the sandbox virtualizes a file it copies the original security descriptor, but the driver opened the virtualization target object with GENERIC_WRITE and FILE_WRITE_ATTRIBUTES only, omitting WRITE_DAC. Every attempt to apply the original DACL therefore failed, and the failure was discarded silently, leaving virtualized copies of sensitive files with permissive permissions. Because the IRP_MJ_CREATE callback additionally did not strip WRITE_DAC for sensitive directories, a sandboxed process could rewrite the security descriptor of a virtualized object, read the virtualized copy of the SAM database, extract local NTLM password hashes and execute code as SYSTEM. The absence of an IRP_MJ_SET_SECURITY callback in the driver's operation registration table is a related defense-in-depth gap, but it is not the control that prevents this attack.

INFO

Published Date :

Sept. 16, 2026, 3:17 p.m.

Last Modified :

Sept. 16, 2026, 3:17 p.m.

Remotely Exploit :

No
Affected Products

The following products are affected by CVE-2026-82964 vulnerability. Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the products that are affected, the information is not represented in the table below.

No affected product recoded yet

CVSS Scores
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System is a standardized framework for assessing the severity of vulnerabilities in software and systems. We collect and displays CVSS scores from various sources for each CVE.
Score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Score Impact Score Source
CVSS 3.1 HIGH dbd8429d-f261-4b1e-94cc-ae3132817e2e
CVSS 3.1 HIGH [email protected]
Solution
Update Avast software to fix a local privilege escalation vulnerability via improper permission handling in the sandbox driver.
  • Update Avast antivirus software to the latest version.
  • Apply vendor-provided security patches immediately.
  • Verify sandbox driver permissions are correctly enforced.
  • Ensure sensitive file permissions are not improperly modified.
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration

While CVE identifies specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2026-82964 is associated with the following CWEs:

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC) stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2026-82964 weaknesses.

We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).

Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.

The following list is the news that have been mention CVE-2026-82964 vulnerability anywhere in the article.

The following table lists the changes that have been made to the CVE-2026-82964 vulnerability over time.

Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.

  • New CVE Received by [email protected]

    Sep. 16, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Description Improper preservation of permissions in the Avast sandbox minifilter driver (aswSnx.sys) on Windows allows a local, low-privileged attacker executing inside the sandbox to escape file isolation and escalate to SYSTEM. When the sandbox virtualizes a file it copies the original security descriptor, but the driver opened the virtualization target object with GENERIC_WRITE and FILE_WRITE_ATTRIBUTES only, omitting WRITE_DAC. Every attempt to apply the original DACL therefore failed, and the failure was discarded silently, leaving virtualized copies of sensitive files with permissive permissions. Because the IRP_MJ_CREATE callback additionally did not strip WRITE_DAC for sensitive directories, a sandboxed process could rewrite the security descriptor of a virtualized object, read the virtualized copy of the SAM database, extract local NTLM password hashes and execute code as SYSTEM. The absence of an IRP_MJ_SET_SECURITY callback in the driver's operation registration table is a related defense-in-depth gap, but it is not the control that prevents this attack.
    Added CVSS V3.1 AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
    Added CWE CWE-281
    Added CWE CWE-653
    Added CWE CWE-862
    Added Affected New affected value received. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/82xxx/CVE-2026-82964.json">CVE-2026-82964</a>
    Added Reference https://github.com/MSNightmare/PrettyPrague
    Added Reference https://support.avast.com/en-us/article/Update-Antivirus
    Added Reference https://support.avg.com/SupportArticleView?l=en&urlname=Update-AVG-Antivirus
    Added Reference https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/v20240108175512167
    Added Reference https://www.gendigital.com/us/en/contact-us/security-advisories/
    Added Reference https://x.com/msnightmare2000/status/2094106041046765752
EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days. Following chart shows the EPSS score history of the vulnerability.