CVE-2024-13944

Race Condition

Published

09 May 2025

Modified

17 June 2026

CVSS Score v3.1 7.8

Click a component to see what it means

Raw vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0017 6th percentile

Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2024-13944 is a high-severity Link Following (CWE-59) vulnerability in Gendigital (inferred from references). Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Security Account Manager (T1003.002); ranked at the 6th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-25 (Reference Monitor) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-54472

Vulnerability Data

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.

CWE(s): CWE-59 CWE-367

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1003.002 Security Account Manager Credential Access

Adversaries may attempt to extract credential material from the Security Account Manager (SAM) database either through in-memory techniques or through the Windows Registry where the SAM database is stored.

attack.mitre.org →

T1003.004 LSA Secrets Credential Access

Adversaries with SYSTEM access to a host may attempt to access Local Security Authority (LSA) secrets, which can contain a variety of different credential materials, such as credentials for service accounts.

attack.mitre.org →

T1003.005 Cached Domain Credentials Credential Access

Adversaries may attempt to access cached domain credentials used to allow authentication to occur in the event a domain controller is unavailable.

attack.mitre.org →

T1003.006 DCSync Credential Access

Adversaries may attempt to access credentials and other sensitive information by abusing a Windows Domain Controller's application programming interface (API)(Citation: Microsoft DRSR Dec 2017) (Citation: Microsoft GetNCCChanges) (Citati…

attack.mitre.org →

T1003.008 /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow Credential Access

Adversaries may attempt to dump the contents of <code>/etc/passwd</code> and <code>/etc/shadow</code> to enable offline password cracking.

attack.mitre.org →

T1007 System Service Discovery Discovery

Adversaries may try to gather information about registered local system services.

attack.mitre.org →

Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2024-13961Shared CWE-367, CWE-59

CVE-2026-62189Shared CWE-367, CWE-59

CVE-2026-35359Shared CWE-367, CWE-59

CVE-2026-28689Shared CWE-367, CWE-59

CVE-2026-53799Shared CWE-367, CWE-59

CVE-2026-43619Shared CWE-367, CWE-59

CVE-2024-13960Shared CWE-367, CWE-59

CVE-2025-67124Shared CWE-367, CWE-59

CVE-2026-53801Shared CWE-367, CWE-59

CVE-2026-27456Shared CWE-367, CWE-59

Affected Assets

Gendigital

—

inferred from references and description; NVD did not file a CPE for this CVE

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent

Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect

Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden

Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate

Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

V15.4.2
V17.2.6

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

AC-25 Reference Monitor good match

A reference monitor that is always invoked and analyzable structurally eliminates the non-atomic check-then-use pattern underlying TOCTOU.

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match

Proper enforcement of access authorizations on the resolved target resource stops a link from reaching an unintended object.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match

Least-privilege limits the damage an attacker can cause after following an unintended link.

SC-39 Process Isolation partial match

Process isolation limits the blast radius of a successful TOCTOU exploitation but does not remove the race itself.

SI-10 Information Input Validation partial match

Validating file-name inputs can reject or canonicalize names that resolve to links before access occurs.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 partial match

blocks

Secure SDLC practices directly require code to validate paths and avoid unsafe link following.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.5.14 Information transfer partial match

removes

A.5.15 Access control partial match

removes

A.5.16 Identity management partial match

removes

A.5.17 Authentication information partial match

removes

A.5.18 Access rights partial match

removes

A.8.10 Information deletion partial match

removes