# CVE-2021-25270: Privilege escalation in HitmanPro.Alert

> A local attacker can execute arbitrary code with administrator privileges in HitmanPro.Alert, requiring an upgrade to mitigate.

- **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:** 7 Oct 2021
- **Updated:** 3 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-q74q-jq9c-493q

## What is CVE-2021-25270?

CVE-2021-25270 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Sophos HitmanPro.Alert, published on 7 Oct 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A local attacker could execute arbitrary code with administrator privileges in HitmanPro.Alert before version Build 901.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-25270?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Sophos Hitmanpro.alert.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-25270?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-25270 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2021-25270 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-25270 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Sophos HitmanPro.Alert

- [CVE-2018-3971](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-3971/): Memory corruption in Sophos (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2020-9540](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-9540/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2018-3970](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-3970/): Information disclosure in Sophos (medium 4.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-25270 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-25270 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Sophos HitmanPro.Alert, published on 7 Oct 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-2021-25270 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Sophos HitmanPro.Alert. 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-2021-25270/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-25270/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-25270
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-25270
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-25270

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-25270/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.