Security Bulletin - McAfee Agent for Windows update fixes three vulnerabilities (CVE-2021-31836, CVE-2021-31841, CVE-2021-31847)
Security Bulletins ID:
SB10369
Last Modified: 2022-05-04 19:30:51 Etc/GMT
Last Modified: 2022-05-04 19:30:51 Etc/GMT
Summary
First Published: September 21, 2021
Article contents:
This Security Bulletin covers security fixes for MA on Windows. In all three issues, the attacker would need to place files on the local machine to exploit them. The issues are listed in descending order of severity.
To remediate this issue, customers should update to MA 5.7.4.
Go to the Product Downloads site, and download the applicable product update file:
Download and Installation Instructions
For instructions to download product updates and hotfixes, see: KB56057 - How to download Enterprise product updates and documentation. Review the Release Notes and the Installation Guide for instructions on how to install these updates. All documentation is available at our Product Documentation site.
Acknowledgments
We credit the following for responsibly reporting these flaws:
CVE-2021-31847 - @Kharosx0 working with Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative
CVE-2021-31841 - L ukasz Rupala from ING TechPL
CVE-2021-31836 - mr.d0x - https://twitter.com/mrd0x
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do I know if my product is vulnerable or not?
For ePO/server products:
Use the following instructions for server-based products:
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) is the result of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council's effort to standardize a system of assessing the criticality of a vulnerability. This system offers an unbiased criticality score between 0 and 10 that customers can use to judge how critical a vulnerability is and plan accordingly. For more information, visit the CVSS website.
When calculating CVSS scores, we've adopted a philosophy that fosters consistency and repeatability. Our guiding principle for CVSS scoring is to score the exploit under consideration by itself. We consider only the immediate and direct impact of the exploit under consideration. We do not factor into a score any potential follow-on exploits that might be made possible by the successful exploitation of the issue being scored.
What are the CVSS scoring metrics?
All Security Bulletins are published on our Knowledge Center. Security Bulletins are retired (removed) once a product is both End of Sale and End of Support (End of Life).
How do I report a product vulnerability to you?
If you have information about a security issue or vulnerability with a product, follow the instructions provided in KB95563 - Report a vulnerability.
How do you respond to this and any other reported security flaws?
Our key priority is the security of our customers. If a vulnerability is found within any of our software or services, we work closely with the relevant security software development team to ensure the rapid and effective development of a fix and communication plan.
We only publish Security Bulletins if they include something actionable such as a workaround, mitigation, version update, or hotfix. Otherwise, we would simply be informing the hacker community that our products are a target, putting our customers at greater risk. For products that are updated automatically, a non-actionable Security Bulletin might be published to acknowledge the discoverer.
To view our PSIRT policy, see KB95564 - About PSIRT.
Resources
Disclaimer
The information provided in this Security Bulletin is provided as is without warranty of any kind. We disclaim all warranties, either express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall we or our suppliers be liable for any damages whatsoever including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, loss of business profits, or special damages, even if we or our suppliers have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states don't allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, so the preceding limitation may not apply.
Any future product release dates mentioned in this Security Bulletin are intended to outline our general product direction, and they shouldn't be relied on in making a purchasing decision. The product release dates are for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. The product release dates aren't a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functionality. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for our products remain at our sole discretion and may be changed or canceled at any time.
| Product: | Impacted Versions: | CVE ID: | Impact of Vulnerabilities: | Severity Ratings: | CVSS v3.1 Base/Temporal Scores: |
| McAfee Agent (MA) for Windows | Prior to 5.7.4 | CVE-2021-31847 | CWE-269: Improper Privilege Management CWE-347: Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature |
High | 8.2 / 7.4 |
| MA for Windows | Prior to 5.7.4 | CVE-2021-31841 | CWE-347: Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature CWE-426: Untrusted Search Path |
High | 8.2 / 7.4 |
| MA for Windows | Prior to 5.7.4 | CVE-2021-31836 | CWE-269: Improper Privilege Management | Medium | 5.6 / 5.1 |
| Recommendations: | Install or update to MA 5.7.4 | ||||
| Security Bulletin Replacement: | None | ||||
| Location of updated software: | Product Downloads site | ||||
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Article contents:
- Vulnerability Description
- Remediation
- Acknowledgments
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Resources
- Disclaimer
This Security Bulletin covers security fixes for MA on Windows. In all three issues, the attacker would need to place files on the local machine to exploit them. The issues are listed in descending order of severity.
- CVE-2021-31847
Improper access control vulnerability in the repair process for McAfee Agent for Windows prior to 5.7.4 could allow a local attacker to perform a DLL preloading attack using unsigned DLLs. This would result in elevation of privileges and the ability to execute arbitrary code as the system user, through not correctly protecting a temporary directory used in the repair process and not checking the DLL signature.
NVD CVE-2021-31847
MITRE CVE-2021-31847
- CVE-2021-31841
A DLL sideloading vulnerability in McAfee Agent for Windows prior to 5.7.4 could allow a local user to perform a DLL sideloading attack with an unsigned DLL with a specific name and in a specific location. This would result in the user gaining elevated permissions and the ability to execute arbitrary code as the system user, through not checking the DLL signature.
NVD CVE-2021-31841
MITRE CVE-2021-31841
- CVE-2021-31836
Improper privilege management vulnerability in maconfig for McAfee Agent for Windows prior to 5.7.4 allows a local user to gain access to sensitive information. The utility was able to be run from any location on the file system and by a low privileged user.
NVD CVE-2021-31836
MITRE CVE-2021-31836
To remediate this issue, customers should update to MA 5.7.4.
Go to the Product Downloads site, and download the applicable product update file:
| Product | Version | Type | Release Date |
| MA for Windows | 5.7.4 | Update | September 21, 2021 |
Download and Installation Instructions
For instructions to download product updates and hotfixes, see: KB56057 - How to download Enterprise product updates and documentation. Review the Release Notes and the Installation Guide for instructions on how to install these updates. All documentation is available at our Product Documentation site.
Acknowledgments
We credit the following for responsibly reporting these flaws:
CVE-2021-31847 - @Kharosx0 working with Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative
CVE-2021-31841 - L ukasz Rupala from ING TechPL
CVE-2021-31836 - mr.d0x - https://twitter.com/mrd0x
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do I know if my product is vulnerable or not?
For ePO/server products:
Use the following instructions for server-based products:
- Check the version and build of ePO that is installed. For instructions, see: KB52634 - How to determine what hotfix is installed for ePO.
- Create a query in ePO for the product version of the product installed within your organization.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) is the result of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council's effort to standardize a system of assessing the criticality of a vulnerability. This system offers an unbiased criticality score between 0 and 10 that customers can use to judge how critical a vulnerability is and plan accordingly. For more information, visit the CVSS website.
When calculating CVSS scores, we've adopted a philosophy that fosters consistency and repeatability. Our guiding principle for CVSS scoring is to score the exploit under consideration by itself. We consider only the immediate and direct impact of the exploit under consideration. We do not factor into a score any potential follow-on exploits that might be made possible by the successful exploitation of the issue being scored.
What are the CVSS scoring metrics?
- CVE-2021-31847: Improper privilege management in repair process of MA for Windows
Base Score 8.2 Attack Vector (AV) Local (L) Attack Complexity (AC) Low (L) Privileges Required (PR) Low (L) User Interaction (UI) Required (R) Scope (S) Changed (C) Confidentiality (C) High (H) Integrity (I) High (H) Availability (A) High (H) Temporal Score (Overall) 7.4 Exploitability (E) Proof-of-Concept (P) Remediation Level (RL) Official Fix (O) Report Confidence (RC) Confirmed (C)
NOTE: This CVSS version 3.1 vector was used to generate this score.
- CVE-2021-31841: DLL side loading vulnerability in MA for Windows
Base Score 8.2 Attack Vector (AV) Local (L) Attack Complexity (AC) Low (L) Privileges Required (PR) Low (L) User Interaction (UI) Required (R) Scope (S) Changed (C) Confidentiality (C) High (H) Integrity (I) High (H) Availability (A) High (H) Temporal Score (Overall) 7.4 Exploitability (E) Proof-of-Concept (P) Remediation Level (RL) Official Fix (O) Report Confidence (RC) Confirmed (C)
NOTE: This CVSS version 3.1 vector was used to generate this score.
- CVE-2021-31836: Improper Privilege Management in MA for Windows
Base Score 5.6 Attack Vector (AV) Local (L) Attack Complexity (AC) Low (L) Privileges Required (PR) Low (L) User Interaction (UI) Required (R) Scope (S) Unchanged (U) Confidentiality (C) High (H) Integrity (I) Low (L) Availability (A) None (N) Temporal Score (Overall) 5.1 Exploitability (E) Proof-of-Concept (P) Remediation Level (RL) Official Fix (O) Report Confidence (RC) Confirmed (C)
NOTE: This CVSS version 3.1 vector was used to generate this score.
All Security Bulletins are published on our Knowledge Center. Security Bulletins are retired (removed) once a product is both End of Sale and End of Support (End of Life).
How do I report a product vulnerability to you?
If you have information about a security issue or vulnerability with a product, follow the instructions provided in KB95563 - Report a vulnerability.
How do you respond to this and any other reported security flaws?
Our key priority is the security of our customers. If a vulnerability is found within any of our software or services, we work closely with the relevant security software development team to ensure the rapid and effective development of a fix and communication plan.
We only publish Security Bulletins if they include something actionable such as a workaround, mitigation, version update, or hotfix. Otherwise, we would simply be informing the hacker community that our products are a target, putting our customers at greater risk. For products that are updated automatically, a non-actionable Security Bulletin might be published to acknowledge the discoverer.
To view our PSIRT policy, see KB95564 - About PSIRT.
Resources
To contact Technical Support, go to the Create a Service Request page and log on to the ServicePortal.
- If you are a registered user, type your User ID and Password, and then click Log In.
- If you are not a registered user, click Register and complete the fields to have your password and instructions emailed to you.
Disclaimer
The information provided in this Security Bulletin is provided as is without warranty of any kind. We disclaim all warranties, either express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall we or our suppliers be liable for any damages whatsoever including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, loss of business profits, or special damages, even if we or our suppliers have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states don't allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, so the preceding limitation may not apply.
Any future product release dates mentioned in this Security Bulletin are intended to outline our general product direction, and they shouldn't be relied on in making a purchasing decision. The product release dates are for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. The product release dates aren't a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functionality. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for our products remain at our sole discretion and may be changed or canceled at any time.
