CVE-2020-28572
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 could allow an unprivileged user to abuse the product installer to reinstall the agent with additional malicious code in the context of a higher privilege.
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 vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex One allows an unprivileged local user to manipulate the product installer to reinstall the security agent with additional malicious code, achieving code execution in a higher privilege context (privilege escalation).
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= 2019CVSS 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 if Trend Micro Apex One is installedCheck for Apex One installation directories (commonly C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\Apex One) or look for the 'Apex One' service in Windows Services (services.msc)Affected if The product is not installed or the service does not exist, then not affected
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Verify the installed Apex One version is 2019Open Windows Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\TrendMicro\Apex One\CurrentVersion, or check the version information in the Apex One console under Help > AboutAffected if The installed version is exactly 2019 (any build of version 2019)
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Check for presence of the vulnerable installer componentLook for the Apex One installer files or the 'PCCSRV' directory structure containing installation/reinstallation utilities, typically found in the Apex One installation path under \PCCSRV\ or \ofcscan.iniAffected if The installer or reinstallation utilities exist and are accessible on the system
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Verify local user privileges around Apex One directoriesUse icacls or Windows Explorer security properties to check if unprivileged local users have write or modify permissions to the Apex One installation directory or installer componentsAffected if Unprivileged users can write to or modify installer files or directories
A system is affected if Trend Micro Apex One version 2019 is installed and unprivileged local users can access or modify the product's installer or reinstallation components.
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-supplied security patch for CVE-2020-28572 to Trend Micro Apex One installations; until patched, restrict local unprivileged access to systems running the affected software.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing4.0 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 $3,648.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-28572 — 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-2020-28572 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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