CVE-2026-41952: Acronis Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

CVE-2026-41952 Overview

CVE-2026-41952 is a local privilege escalation vulnerability caused by improper input validation affecting Acronis security products on Windows systems. The flaw allows a local attacker with low-level access to escalate privileges to higher levels, potentially gaining administrative control over the affected system.

Critical Impact

Local attackers can exploit improper input validation to escalate privileges, potentially compromising system integrity, confidentiality, and availability on Windows endpoints running vulnerable Acronis products.

Affected Products

• Acronis DeviceLock DLP (Windows) before build 9.0.93212
• Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent (Windows) before build 42183

Discovery Timeline

• April 29, 2026 - CVE-2026-41952 published to NVD
• April 29, 2026 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2026-41952

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-123 (Write-what-where Condition), a memory corruption flaw where an attacker can write arbitrary data to an arbitrary memory location. The weakness arises from improper input validation in the affected Acronis components, allowing malicious actors with local access to craft specially formatted input that bypasses security controls.

The attack requires local access and low privileges to execute, but requires no user interaction. Upon successful exploitation, an attacker can achieve elevated privileges on the compromised system, gaining high-level control over confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected Windows endpoint.

Root Cause

The root cause stems from improper input validation (CWE-123) within the Acronis DeviceLock DLP and Cyber Protect Cloud Agent software components. When processing user-supplied input, the affected software fails to properly validate or sanitize data boundaries, enabling a write-what-where condition that can be leveraged for privilege escalation.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is local, requiring an attacker to have existing access to the target Windows system. The exploitation process involves:

1. Gaining initial low-privilege access to a Windows system running vulnerable Acronis software
2. Crafting malicious input designed to trigger the improper validation flaw
3. Exploiting the write-what-where condition to overwrite critical memory structures
4. Leveraging the memory corruption to escalate privileges to a higher level (such as SYSTEM)

The vulnerability can be exploited without user interaction, making it particularly dangerous in multi-user environments or systems where an attacker has obtained limited access through other means.

For detailed technical information on this vulnerability, refer to the Acronis Security Advisory SEC-7790.

Detection Methods for CVE-2026-41952

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual process behavior from Acronis DeviceLock DLP or Cyber Protect Cloud Agent services
• Unexpected privilege escalation events originating from low-privileged user accounts
• Memory access violations or crashes in Acronis-related processes followed by elevated process creation
• Windows Event Log entries indicating successful privilege changes from non-administrative accounts

Detection Strategies

• Monitor for abnormal child process creation from Acronis service processes with elevated privileges
• Implement endpoint detection rules to identify suspicious memory manipulation patterns in protected processes
• Deploy SentinelOne behavioral AI to detect privilege escalation attempts targeting installed security software
• Configure alerts for changes to security-critical registry keys or system files by Acronis processes

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed Windows Security Event logging (Event IDs 4624, 4672, 4673) on systems with vulnerable Acronis software
• Implement file integrity monitoring on Acronis installation directories
• Deploy SentinelOne Singularity Platform for real-time detection and automated response to privilege escalation attempts
• Review system access logs for local accounts attempting to interact with Acronis service components

How to Mitigate CVE-2026-41952

Immediate Actions Required

• Update Acronis DeviceLock DLP to build 9.0.93212 or later immediately
• Update Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent to build 42183 or later immediately
• Restrict local access to systems running vulnerable versions to only essential personnel
• Monitor affected systems for signs of exploitation while patching is in progress

Patch Information

Acronis has released security updates to address this vulnerability. Organizations should update to the following minimum versions:

• Acronis DeviceLock DLP (Windows): Build 9.0.93212 or later
• Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent (Windows): Build 42183 or later

For official patch details and download links, refer to the Acronis Security Advisory SEC-7790.

Workarounds

• Implement principle of least privilege to minimize the number of users with local access to affected systems
• Apply application whitelisting to prevent unauthorized executables from running alongside Acronis software
• Use SentinelOne Singularity to detect and block exploitation attempts targeting this vulnerability
• Isolate systems running vulnerable versions from sensitive network segments until patches can be applied

# Verify Acronis DeviceLock DLP version on Windows systems
# Run in PowerShell to check installed build version
Get-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Acronis\DeviceLock" -Name "Version" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

# Check Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud Agent version
Get-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Acronis\CyberProtectCloudAgent" -Name "Build" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue