CVE-2021-31854 Code injection vulnerability in McAfee Agent

High 7.7 Published 19 Jan 2022 Updated 3 Aug 2024

Local attackers can inject shell code into McAfee Agent to execute arbitrary commands and escalate privileges to root.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: An administrator
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: A user has to click or open something
Fix: None listed

What is CVE-2021-31854?

CVE-2021-31854 is a high-severity command injection vulnerability in McAfee,LLC McAfee Agent for Windows, published on 19 Jan 2022. 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 command Injection Vulnerability in McAfee Agent (MA) for Windows prior to 5.7.5 allows local users to inject arbitrary shell code into the file cleanup.exe. The malicious clean.exe file is placed into the relevant folder and executed by running the McAfee Agent deployment feature located in the System Tree. An attacker may exploit the vulnerability to obtain a reverse shell which can lead to privilege escalation to obtain root privileges.

Weakness: CWE-78

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-31854?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Mcafee Agent.

How do I fix CVE-2021-31854?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-31854 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade, and pass arguments to programs as a list instead of through a shell. More about Command injection.

Is CVE-2021-31854 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-31854 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as GHSA-5jww-7299-jr22.