# CVE-2022-3421: Privilege escalation in Google Drive for Desktop on MacOS

> An attacker can escalate privileges to root by manipulating directory ownership and symlinks during the initial installation of Google Drive for Desktop on macOS.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.6 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L`)
- **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 Oct 2022
- **Updated:** 21 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-g3jf-h663-mqrx

## What is CVE-2022-3421?

CVE-2022-3421 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Google LLC Drive for Desktop MacOS, published on 17 Oct 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

An attacker can pre-create the `/Applications/Google\ Drive.app/Contents/MacOS` directory which is expected to be owned by root to be owned by a non-root user. When the Drive for Desktop installer is run for the first time, it will place a binary in that directory with execute permissions and set its setuid bit. Since the attacker owns the directory, the attacker can replace the binary with a symlink, causing the installer to set the setuid bit on the symlink. When the symlink is executed, it will run with root permissions. We recommend upgrading past version 64.0

Weakness: CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management), CWE-264

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-3421?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Google Drive.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-3421?

No fix has been published for CVE-2022-3421 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2022-3421 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-3421 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-3421 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-3421 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Google LLC Drive for Desktop MacOS, published on 17 Oct 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-3421 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Google LLC Drive for Desktop 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-2022-3421/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-3421/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-3421
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-3421
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-3421

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-3421/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.