CVE-2020-25776
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 · uneditedTrend Micro Antivirus for Mac 2020 (Consumer) is vulnerable to a symbolic link privilege escalation attack where an attacker could exploit a critical file on the system to escalate their privileges. 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 confidenceTrend Micro Antivirus for Mac 2020 (Consumer) contains a symbolic link privilege escalation vulnerability. An attacker with the ability to execute low-privileged code can exploit how the antivirus software handles critical system files through symlinks to gain elevated 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= 2020CVSS 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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Verify Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac is installedCheck for the application in /Applications/ or use the command: ls -la /Applications/ | grep -i trendmicroAffected if The application directory exists with 'Trend Micro' or 'Trendmicro' in the name
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Determine the installed versionCheck the application version via Info.plist: cat "/Applications/Trend Micro Antivirus.app/Contents/Info.plist" | grep -i version, or right-click the app and select 'Get Info' to view the version numberAffected if The version number matches 2019 or 2020 (exact version strings as listed in affected products)
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Identify if the vulnerable service component is activeList running processes related to Trend Micro: ps -aux | grep -i trend, or check for running daemons in /Library/Application Support/Trend Micro/Affected if Trend Micro antivirus services or daemons are actively running with elevated privileges
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Check for exploitable symlink targets in antivirus directoriesInspect directory permissions and symlinks in common Trend Micro data directories: ls -la "/Library/Application Support/Trend Micro/" and ls -la "/Library/Preferences/com.trendmicro."Affected if World-writable directories or symlinks pointing to sensitive system locations (e.g., /Library/LaunchDaemons, /private/etc) are present
If Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac versions 2019 or 2020 are installed and running with active services, and the system has exploitable symlinks in Trend Micro directories, the environment is likely affected by CVE-2020-25776.
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-provided security patches or updates for Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac 2020 when available; follow least-privilege principles and restrict user permissions where possible to reduce attack surface.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-25776 — 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-2020-25776 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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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