CVE-2021-20726
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 · uneditedUntrusted search path vulnerability in The Installer of Overwolf 2.168.0.n and earlier allows an attacker to gain privileges and execute arbitrary code with the privilege of the user invoking the installer via a Trojan horse DLL in an unspecified directory.
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 confidenceAn untrusted search path (DLL hijacking) vulnerability in the Overwolf installer allows attackers to place a malicious DLL in an unspecified directory that gets loaded during installation, enabling privilege escalation and arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the user running the installer.
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<= 2.168.0.nCVSS 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
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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 Overwolf installation statusCheck for Overwolf installation by looking for the installation directory (commonly at C:\Program Files (x86)\Overwolf or C:\Program Files\Overwolf), or by querying the Windows registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Overwolf or HKLM\SOFTWARE\Overwolf for the InstallLocation value.Affected if Overwolf is installed on the system.
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Determine installed Overwolf versionLocate the version information by checking the version field of the Overwolf.exe file in the installation directory, or by querying the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Overwolf\Install for the Version value.Affected if A version number is returned from the query.
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Compare version against vulnerable rangeCompare the discovered version number to the affected range of Overwolf <= 2.168.0.n. Note that the 'n' suffix indicates any build number at or below that major.minor.patch level.Affected if The installed version is 2.168.0.n or lower, meaning the version string starts with 2.168.0 and the build number is at or below the threshold.
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Assess DLL hijacking exposure during installationWhen running the Overwolf installer in the future, ensure you execute it from a clean, trusted directory (such as a newly created temporary folder) rather than from directories like Downloads, Desktop, or network shares where other users may have write access.Affected if The installer will load DLLs from the current working directory, making the system vulnerable if a malicious DLL is placed in that location before installation.
You are affected if Overwolf is installed with version 2.168.0.n or lower, as this version range is vulnerable to DLL hijacking during the installation process.
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 dataRun the Overwolf installer from a trusted, controlled directory with a clean environment (avoid directories writable by other users), and ensure the working directory and PATH do not contain attacker-controlled locations; prioritize updating to a patched version once available.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-20726 — 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-2021-20726 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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