CVE-2020-24559
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedA vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex One, Worry-Free Business Security 10.0 SP1 and Worry-Free Business Security Services on macOS may allow an attacker to manipulate a certain binary to load and run a script from a user-writable folder, which then would allow them to execute arbitrary code as root. An attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system in order to exploit this vulnerability.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceA local privilege escalation vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex One, Worry-Free Business Security 10.0 SP1, and Worry-Free Business Security Services for macOS allows an attacker with existing low-privileged code execution to manipulate a specific binary to load and execute a malicious script from a user-writable folder, resulting in arbitrary code execution with root privileges.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 2019= saas= xg= 10.0all versionsCVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed Trend Micro product and versionCheck installed applications for 'Trend Micro Apex One', 'Trend Micro OfficeScan', 'Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security', or 'Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security Services'. Retrieve the exact version number from the application's 'About' or version information.Affected if The installed product is Apex One 2019, OfficeScan XG, Worry-Free Business Security 10.0, or Worry-Free Business Security Services (any version).
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Verify low-privileged user access existsConfirm whether standard non-admin users have the ability to execute code or scripts on the system. Check for existing user accounts with limited privileges that could serve as the initial execution point for an attacker.Affected if Low-privileged user accounts exist on the system with code execution capabilities, providing the prerequisite condition for this privilege escalation.
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Check for user-writable directoriesIdentify directories with world-writable or user-writable permissions that could be used to place a malicious script. Common locations include /tmp, user home directories, or application-specific writable folders.Affected if Any user-writable directory exists on the system where a low-privileged attacker could place a malicious script for the vulnerable binary to execute.
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Locate the affected Trend Micro binarySearch for the Trend Micro security service binary that handles script loading. Check the installation directory of the security product for binaries that may load and execute scripts from user-accessible paths.Affected if The vulnerable Trend Micro binary exists and is configured to load scripts from user-writable locations without proper validation.
You are affected if a Trend Micro security product (Apex One 2019, OfficeScan XG, Worry-Free Business Security 10.0, or Worry-Free Business Security Services) is installed and low-privileged users can write to directories that the product's binary accesses for script execution.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataApply vendor patches for CVE-2020-24559 when available; restrict user-level code execution privileges where possible to minimize the attack surface for the prerequisite condition.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,176.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-24559 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-24559 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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