# CVE-2021-25264: Privilege escalation in Intercept X for MacOS

> A local attacker can execute arbitrary code with administrator privileges on Sophos Endpoint products for MacOS.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 17 May 2021
- **Updated:** 3 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-jx3w-vv3x-mm9m

## What is CVE-2021-25264?

CVE-2021-25264 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Sophos Intercept X for MacOS, published on 17 May 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In multiple versions of Sophos Endpoint products for MacOS, a local attacker could execute arbitrary code with administrator privileges.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-25264?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Sophos Home, Sophos Intercept X.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-25264?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-25264 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2021-25264 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-25264 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-25264 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-25264 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Sophos Intercept X for MacOS, published on 17 May 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-25264 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Sophos Intercept X for MacOS. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-25264/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-25264/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-25264
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-25264
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-25264

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-25264/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.