CVE-2021-45338

HIGHNVD 7.87.8—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 7.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2021-12-28. NVD baseline CVSS 7.8; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, nvd
7.8
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS: 0%CVSS: 7.8Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.

Multiple privilege escalation vulnerabilities in Avast Antivirus prior to 20.4 allow a local user to gain elevated privileges by calling unnecessarily powerful internal methods of the main antivirus service which could lead to the (1) arbitrary file delete, (2) write and (3) reset security.

CVSS v3
7.8
EG Score
7.8(medium)
EG Risk
40(Track)
EG Risk 40/100SSVC: Track

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity78% × 45%
Exploitation0% × 40%
Automatability30% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS
30.6%
KEV
Not listed

Published

December 27, 2021

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

References (8)

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 10× in last 7d / 46× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 105 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-07-24 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-23 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-07-23 02:05 UTCEG score recompute
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Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2021-45338?
CVE-2021-45338 is a high vulnerability published on December 27, 2021. Multiple privilege escalation vulnerabilities in Avast Antivirus prior to 20.4 allow a local user to gain elevated privileges by calling unnecessarily powerful internal methods of the main antivirus service which could lead to the (1) arbitrary file delete, (2) write and (3) reset security.
When was CVE-2021-45338 disclosed?
CVE-2021-45338 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on December 27, 2021, with the most recent update on November 21, 2024. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2021-45338 actively exploited?
CVE-2021-45338 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 30.6% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2021-45338?
CVE-2021-45338 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2021-45338?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2021-45338, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

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