Local privilege escalation via improper symlink handling
Published Aug 31, 2023 · Updated Apr 10, 2026
Link-following in Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office and True Image OEM before builds 40278 and 42575 allows local users to gain privileges. During installation, the Windows installer follows an attacker-controlled symbolic link when resolving a filesystem resource outside its intended control sphere. A local low-privileged user must prepare the link and induce an installation; successful exploitation elevates privileges on the affected host.
Summary
What happened
Link-following in Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office and True Image OEM before builds 40278 and 42575 allows local users to gain privileges. During installation, the Windows installer follows an attacker-controlled symbolic link when resolving a filesystem resource outside its intended control sphere. A local low-privileged user must prepare the link and induce an installation; successful exploitation elevates privileges on the affected host.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2022-46869
- Published
- Aug 31, 2023
- Updated
- Apr 10, 2026
- Vendor
- Acronis
- Product
- Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office
- Classifications
- CWE-610, CWE-59, T1068
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 31, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Apr 10, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=0 <40278
- Affected versionversion=unspecified <40278
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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