{"id":75450,"date":"2017-11-13T21:31:19","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T05:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cloudblogs.microsoft.com\/microsoftsecure\/?p=75450"},"modified":"2023-05-26T14:41:26","modified_gmt":"2023-05-26T21:41:26","slug":"avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/","title":{"rendered":"#AVGater vulnerability does not affect Windows Defender Antivirus, MSE, or SCEP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On November 10, 2017, a vulnerability called <a href=\"https:\/\/bogner.sh\/2017\/11\/avgater-getting-local-admin-by-abusing-the-anti-virus-quarantine\/\">#AVGater<\/a> was discovered affecting some antivirus products. The vulnerability requires a non-administrator-level account to perform a restore of a quarantined file.<\/p>\n<p>Windows Defender Antivirus and other Microsoft antimalware products, including System Center Endpoint Protection (SCEP) and Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), are not affected by this vulnerability.<\/p>\n<p>This vulnerability can be exploited to restore files that have been detected and quarantined by an antivirus product. To exploit this, malicious applications, including those launched by user-level accounts without administrator privileges, create an NTFS junction from the %System% folder to folder where the quarantined file is located. This NTFS junction can trigger the antivirus product to attempt to restore the file into the %System% folder.<\/p>\n<p>This is a relatively old attack vector. By design, Microsoft antimalware products, including Windows Defender Antivirus, have never been affected by this vulnerability because it does not permit applications launched by user-level accounts to restore files from quarantine. This is part of the built-in protections against this and other known user-account permissions vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n<p>Read more about Windows Defender Antivirus and the rest of our Windows Defender protection products at the following links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/threat-protection\/windows-defender-antivirus\/windows-defender-antivirus-in-windows-10?ocid=cx-blog-mmpc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Windows Defender Antivirus documentation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/threat-protection\/windows-defender-atp\/windows-defender-advanced-threat-protection?ocid=cx-blog-mmpc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection documentation<\/a> (you can also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/WindowsForBusiness\/windows-atp?ocid=cx-blog-mmpc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>sign up for a free trial<\/strong><\/a>)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/threat-protection\/windows-defender-exploit-guard\/windows-defender-exploit-guard?ocid=cx-blog-mmpc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Windows Defender Exploit Guard documentation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/security\/threat-protection\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Windows Threat Protection<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>*Edited 11\/17\/2017 to include other Microsoft antimalware products<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h4><strong>Talk to us<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Questions, concerns, or insights on this story? Join discussions at the <a href=\"https:\/\/answers.microsoft.com\/en-us\/protect\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Microsoft community<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/wdsi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Windows Defender Security Intelligence<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Follow us on Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WDSecurity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@WDSecurity<\/a> and Facebook <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MsftWDSI\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Windows Defender Security Intelligence<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On November 10, 2017, a vulnerability called #AVGater was discovered affecting some antivirus products. The vulnerability requires a non-administrator-level account to perform a restore of a quarantined file. Windows Defender Antivirus and other Microsoft antimalware products, including System Center Endpoint Protection (SCEP) and Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), are not affected by this vulnerability. This vulnerability [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ms_queue_id":[],"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","footnotes":""},"content-type":[3663],"topic":[3687],"products":[3690,3694],"threat-intelligence":[3739],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3380],"class_list":["post-75450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","content-type-research","topic-threat-intelligence","products-microsoft-defender","products-microsoft-defender-for-endpoint","threat-intelligence-vulnerabilities-and-exploits"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>#AVGater vulnerability does not affect Windows Defender Antivirus, MSE, or SCEP | Microsoft Security Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"#AVGater vulnerability does not affect Windows Defender Antivirus, MSE, or SCEP | Microsoft Security Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On November 10, 2017, a vulnerability called #AVGater was discovered affecting some antivirus products. The vulnerability requires a non-administrator-level account to perform a restore of a quarantined file. Windows Defender Antivirus and other Microsoft antimalware products, including System Center Endpoint Protection (SCEP) and Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), are not affected by this vulnerability. This vulnerability [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Microsoft Security Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-14T05:31:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-26T21:41:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cropped-microsoft_logo_element.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Microsoft Threat Intelligence\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Microsoft Threat Intelligence\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/\"},\"author\":[{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/author\/microsoft-security-threat-intelligence\/\",\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@name\":\"Microsoft Threat Intelligence\"}],\"headline\":\"#AVGater vulnerability does not affect Windows Defender Antivirus, MSE, or SCEP\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-14T05:31:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-26T21:41:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/\"},\"wordCount\":266,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/\",\"name\":\"#AVGater vulnerability does not affect Windows Defender Antivirus, MSE, or SCEP | Microsoft Security Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-14T05:31:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-26T21:41:26+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"#AVGater vulnerability does not affect Windows Defender Antivirus, MSE, or SCEP\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Microsoft Security Blog\",\"description\":\"Expert coverage of cybersecurity topics\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Microsoft Security Blog\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cropped-cropped-microsoft_logo_element.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cropped-cropped-microsoft_logo_element.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Microsoft Security Blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"#AVGater vulnerability does not affect Windows Defender Antivirus, MSE, or SCEP | Microsoft Security Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"#AVGater vulnerability does not affect Windows Defender Antivirus, MSE, or SCEP | Microsoft Security Blog","og_description":"On November 10, 2017, a vulnerability called #AVGater was discovered affecting some antivirus products. The vulnerability requires a non-administrator-level account to perform a restore of a quarantined file. Windows Defender Antivirus and other Microsoft antimalware products, including System Center Endpoint Protection (SCEP) and Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), are not affected by this vulnerability. This vulnerability [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/","og_site_name":"Microsoft Security Blog","article_published_time":"2017-11-14T05:31:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-05-26T21:41:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":512,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cropped-microsoft_logo_element.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Microsoft Threat Intelligence","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Microsoft Threat Intelligence","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/"},"author":[{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/author\/microsoft-security-threat-intelligence\/","@type":"Person","@name":"Microsoft Threat Intelligence"}],"headline":"#AVGater vulnerability does not affect Windows Defender Antivirus, MSE, or SCEP","datePublished":"2017-11-14T05:31:19+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-26T21:41:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/"},"wordCount":266,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#organization"},"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/","name":"#AVGater vulnerability does not affect Windows Defender Antivirus, MSE, or SCEP | Microsoft Security Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-11-14T05:31:19+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-26T21:41:26+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/avgater-vulnerability-does-not-affect-windows-defender-antivirus\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"#AVGater vulnerability does not affect Windows Defender Antivirus, MSE, or SCEP"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/","name":"Microsoft Security Blog","description":"Expert coverage of cybersecurity topics","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#organization","name":"Microsoft Security Blog","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cropped-cropped-microsoft_logo_element.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cropped-cropped-microsoft_logo_element.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Microsoft Security Blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}}]}},"msxcm_display_generated_audio":false,"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Microsoft Security Blog","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"content-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-type?post=75450"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=75450"},{"taxonomy":"products","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/products?post=75450"},{"taxonomy":"threat-intelligence","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/threat-intelligence?post=75450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75450"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=75450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}