High severity · published Sep 16, 2026
CVE-2026-82964
Avast sandbox privilege escalation via unpreserved DACLs on virtualized files in aswSnx.sys
8.8
CVSS
0.2%
EPSS
No
On KEV
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.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Changed
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.2% · higher than 5% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
AA
AVG Antivirus Free, AVG Internet Security, AVG Ultimate · Gen Digital
before 26.8 · source: vendor
AF
Avast Free Antivirus, Avast One, Avast Premium Security, Avast Ultimate, Avast Business Security · Gen Digital
before 26.8 · source: vendor
NA
Norton Antivirus Plus, Norton 360 Standard, Norton 360 Deluxe, Norton 360 Advanced · Gen Digital
before 26.8 · source: vendor
Affected product
AF
Avast Free Antivirus, Avast One, Avast Premium Security, Avast Ultimate, Avast Business Security
Gen Digital
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-82964
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-82964
github.com
https://github.com/MSNightmare/PrettyPrague
support.avast.com
https://support.avast.com/en-us/article/Update-Antivirus
support.avg.com
https://support.avg.com/SupportArticleView?l=en&urlname=Update-AVG-Antivirus
support.norton.com
https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/v20240108175512167
www.gendigital.com
https://www.gendigital.com/us/en/contact-us/security-advisories/
x.com
https://x.com/msnightmare2000/status/2094106041046765752
