CVE-2021-23874: Arbitrary Process Execution vulnerability in McAfee Total Protection (MTP) prior to 16.0.30 allows a local user to gain elevated privileges and execute…

PriorityP279high7.8CVSS 3.1

AVLACLPRLUINSUCHIHAH

KEVITW

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilitydue 2021-11-17

Exploited in the wild

EPSS

1.03%

59.3th percentile

Arbitrary Process Execution vulnerability in McAfee Total Protection (MTP) prior to 16.0.30 allows a local user to gain elevated privileges and execute arbitrary code bypassing MTP self-defense.

Affected

2 ranges

Vendor	Product	Version range	Fixed in
mcafee	total_protection	< 16.0.30	16.0.30
mcafee_llc	mcafee_total_protection	>= unspecified < 16.0.30	16.0.30

Detection & IOCsextracted from sources · hover to see the quote

→Vulnerability targets McAfee Total Protection (MTP) prior to version 16.0.30; monitor for privilege escalation activity originating from MTP-related processes, which may indicate exploitation of the self-defense bypass ↗
→Look for local user processes spawning elevated or unexpected child processes under the MTP process tree, which may indicate abuse of the improper privilege management flaw to bypass self-defense mechanisms ↗

·Exploitation requires local user access; this is not a remote code execution vulnerability. Detection efforts should focus on endpoint telemetry rather than network-based indicators. ↗
·CISA flagged this as a Known Exploited Vulnerability with a remediation due date of 2021-11-17, indicating confirmed in-the-wild exploitation; prioritize patching MTP to version 16.0.30 or later. ↗

CVSS provenance

nvdv3.17.8HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvdv2.04.6MEDIUMAV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

vulncheck8.2HIGH

cisa7.8HIGH

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