CVE-2020-8961
An issue was discovered in Avira Free-Antivirus before 15.0.2004.1825. The Self-Protection...
An issue was discovered in Avira Free-Antivirus before 15.0.2004.1825. The Self-Protection feature does not prohibit a write operation from an external process. Thus, code injection can be used to turn off this feature. After that, one can construct an event that will modify a file at a specific location, and pass this event to the driver, thereby defeating the anti-virus functionality.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- None
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
NVD Score used
An issue was discovered in Avira Free-Antivirus before 15.0.2004.1825. The Self-Protection feature does not prohibit a write operation from an external process. Thus, code injection can be used to turn off this feature. After that, one can construct an event that will modify a file at a specific location, and pass this event to the driver, thereby defeating the anti-virus functionality.
- Record
CVE-2020-8961- CVSS 3.1
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - CVSS 2.0
- 7.5 High
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P - Updated
- 2026-11-02
CVE List No score
An issue was discovered in Avira Free-Antivirus before 15.0.2004.1825. The Self-Protection feature does not prohibit a write operation from an external process. Thus, code injection can be used to turn off this feature. After that, one can construct an event that will modify a file at a specific location, and pass this event to the driver, thereby defeating the anti-virus functionality.
- Record
CVE-2020-8961- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2020-29791 No score
An issue was discovered in Avira Free-Antivirus before 15.0.2004.1825. The Self-Protection feature does not prohibit a write operation from an external process. Thus, code injection can be used to turn off this feature. After that, one can construct an event that will modify a file at a specific location, and pass this event to the driver, thereby defeating the anti-virus functionality.
- Record
EUVD-2020-29791- Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-6h67-xpj8-pjh2 No score
An issue was discovered in Avira Free-Antivirus before 15.0.2004.1825. The Self-Protection...
An issue was discovered in Avira Free-Antivirus before 15.0.2004.1825. The Self-Protection feature does not prohibit a write operation from an external process. Thus, code injection can be used to turn off this feature. After that, one can construct an event that will modify a file at a specific location, and pass this event to the driver, thereby defeating the anti-virus functionality.
- Record
GHSA-6h67-xpj8-pjh2- Weakness
- CWE-94
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| aliases | EUVD | |
| first indexed | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2020-8961 is a critical vulnerability (CVSS 9.8) in Avira Free Antivirus, published April 9, 2020. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 2.05%, the 81st percentile. No source names a fixed version.