CVE-2021-23873
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 · uneditedPrivilege Escalation vulnerability in McAfee Total Protection (MTP) prior to 16.0.30 allows a local user to gain elevated privileges and perform arbitrary file deletion as the SYSTEM user potentially causing Denial of Service via manipulating Junction link, after enumerating certain files, at a specific time.
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 confidenceMcAfee Total Protection prior to version 16.0.30 contains a local privilege escalation vulnerability where an authenticated local user can manipulate junction links after enumerating specific files at a timing-dependent moment, enabling arbitrary file deletion as the SYSTEM user and potentially causing 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< 16.0.30CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/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 McAfee Total Protection is installedCheck for McAfee Total Protection in the list of installed programs via Windows Control Panel > Programs and Features, or run: Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*' | Where-Object {$_.DisplayName -like '*McAfee*Total*Protection*'}Affected if McAfee Total Protection does not appear in the installed programs list, then the product is not present and this CVE does not apply.
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Identify the installed version of McAfee Total ProtectionOpen the McAfee Total Protection application, click on the question mark or gear icon, then navigate to 'About' or 'Subscription' to view the version number. Alternatively, check the Windows registry: Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\Software\McAfee\Total Protection' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object -ExpandProperty versionAffected if The version displayed is lower than 16.0.30, indicating the installed version is within the affected range.
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Confirm the specific version number against the affected rangeCompare the identified version to 16.0.30 using standard version comparison (e.g., 16.0.29, 16.0.28, 16.0.20, etc. are all below 16.0.30)Affected if Any version number less than 16.0.30 (such as 16.0.29, 16.0.10, 16.0.1, or any 16.0.x release prior to 16.0.30) confirms the installation is vulnerable to this CVE.
You are affected if McAfee Total Protection is installed with any version lower than 16.0.30.
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 data16.0.30
Upgrade McAfee Total Protection to version 16.0.30 or later to remediate this vulnerability.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 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-2021-23873 — 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-2021-23873 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
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