# CVE-2021-31844: Local Privilege Escalation in McAfee DLP Endpoint for Windows

> A local attacker can execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges by placing a malicious Ami Pro file on the system to trigger a buffer overflow in McAfee DLP Endpoint.

- **Severity:** High 8.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 17 Sep 2021
- **Updated:** 3 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-88gm-mqfx-w7ch

## What is CVE-2021-31844?

CVE-2021-31844 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in McAfee,LLC McAfee Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Endpoint for Windows, published on 17 Sep 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

A buffer overflow vulnerability in McAfee Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Endpoint for Windows prior to 11.6.200 allows a local attacker to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges through placing carefully constructed Ami Pro (.sam) files onto the local system and triggering a DLP Endpoint scan through accessing a file. This is caused by the destination buffer being of fixed size and incorrect checks being made on the source size.

Weakness: CWE-120 (Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-31844?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Mcafee Data Loss Prevention Endpoint.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-31844?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-31844 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2021-31844 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-31844 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in McAfee,LLC McAfee Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Endpoint for Windows

- [CVE-2021-31848](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-31848/): Data Loss Prevention (DLP) ePO extension - Cross site scripting (XSS) (high 8.4)
- [CVE-2021-31849](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-31849/): Data Loss Prevention (DLP) ePO extension - SQL injection (high 8.4)
- [CVE-2021-23887](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-23887/): Privilege escalation in McAfee DLP Endpoint for Windows (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2016-8012](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-8012/): Privilege escalation in Data Loss Prevention Endpoint (DLPe) (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2019-3622](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-3622/): DLP Endpoint log file redirection to arbitrary locations (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-31844 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-31844 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in McAfee,LLC McAfee Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Endpoint for Windows, published on 17 Sep 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-31844 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: McAfee,LLC McAfee Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Endpoint for Windows. 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-2021-31844/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-31844/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-31844
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-31844
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-31844

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-31844/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.