CVE-2020-27014
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) contains a race condition vulnerability in the Web Threat Protection Blocklist component, that if exploited, could allow an attacker to case a kernel panic or crash.\n\n\r\nAn attacker must first obtain the ability to execute high-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 · high confidenceA race condition exists in the Web Threat Protection Blocklist component of Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac 2020 (Consumer). An attacker with pre-existing high-privileged code execution can trigger this race condition to cause a kernel panic or complete system crash, resulting in denial of service.
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= 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
- High
- Privileges
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/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 2020 is installedCheck the installed applications for 'Trend Micro Antivirus' or 'Trend Micro Security' for Mac. On macOS, use 'ls /Applications/' or check via System Settings > Privacy & Security > Security. Alternatively, check for the process 'TrendMicroComponentService' or 'Trend Micro' daemons running via Activity Monitor or 'ps aux | grep -i trend'.Affected if Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac version 2020 is installed and running on the system
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Confirm the exact version is 2020Right-click the application in Applications folder > Get Info, or use command line: 'defaults read /Applications/Trend\ Micro\ Antivirus.app/Contents/Info CFBundleShortVersionString' (path may vary). Compare against the affected version range.Affected if The installed version is exactly 2020 (the only affected version per the CVE data)
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Verify Web Threat Protection is enabledOpen Trend Micro Antivirus interface > click 'Web Threat Protection' or navigate to protection settings. Alternatively, check for the related kernel extension or service: 'kextstat | grep -i trend' or look for 'TMESocketFilter' kernel extension. The vulnerability exists in the Blocklist component specifically.Affected if Web Threat Protection module is actively enabled and loaded
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Check for high-privileged code execution contextReview running processes with elevated privileges. Use 'sudo ps aux' or check for processes running as root that could potentially trigger the race condition. The CVE states exploitation requires pre-existing high-privileged access.Affected if Any high-privileged process or unauthorized root-level code execution is present that could trigger the race condition in the Web Threat Protection Blocklist component
A system is affected if it is running exactly Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac version 2020 with Web Threat Protection enabled and an attacker has already achieved high-privileged code execution, allowing them to trigger the race condition causing kernel panic.
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 the vendor patch or update to a newer version of Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac. Since exploitation requires high-privileged access, ensure strict access controls and monitor for unauthorized privilege escalation attempts.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-27014 — 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-2020-27014 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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