CVE-2021-20172 Privilege escalation in Netgear Genie Installer for macOS
A local attacker can overwrite insecurely handled files during installation to escalate privileges to root on macOS systems.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2021-20172?
CVE-2021-20172 is a high-severity vulnerability in Netgear Genie Installer for macOS, published on 30 Dec 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
All known versions of the Netgear Genie Installer for macOS contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability. The installer of the macOS version of Netgear Genie handles certain files in an insecure way. A malicious actor who has local access to the endpoint on which the software is going to be installed may overwrite certain files to obtain privilege escalation to root.
Weakness: CWE-732
Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-20172?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Netgear Genie Installer.
How do I fix CVE-2021-20172?
No fix has been published for CVE-2021-20172 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2021-20172 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-20172 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-9hj7-9vfv-fxf3.