# CVE-2021-32460: Privilege escalation in Trend Micro Maxmium Security (Consumer)

> A local attacker with existing user privileges can exploit improper access control in the installer to escalate privileges on the target machine.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/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:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 3 Jun 2021
- **Updated:** 3 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-8256-vhcj-qq8m

## What is CVE-2021-32460?

CVE-2021-32460 is a high-severity vulnerability in Trend Micro Maxmium Security (Consumer), published on 3 Jun 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The Trend Micro Maximum Security 2021 (v17) consumer product is vulnerable to an improper access control vulnerability in the installer which could allow a local attacker to escalate privileges on a target machine. Please note than an attacker must already have local user privileges and access on the machine to exploit this vulnerability.

Weakness: CWE-732 (Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-32460?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Trendmicro Maximum Security 2021.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-32460?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-32460 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2021-32460 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-32460 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-32460 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-32460 is a high-severity vulnerability in Trend Micro Maxmium Security (Consumer), published on 3 Jun 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-2021-32460 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Trend Micro Maxmium Security (Consumer). 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-2021-32460/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-32460/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-32460
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-32460
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-32460

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-32460/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.