CVE-2021-23885
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 Web Gateway (MWG) prior to 9.2.8 allows an authenticated user to gain elevated privileges through the User Interface and execute commands on the appliance via incorrect improper neutralization of user input in the troubleshooting page.
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 confidenceMcAfee Web Gateway versions prior to 9.2.8 contain a privilege escalation vulnerability in the troubleshooting page of the web UI. An authenticated user can exploit improper neutralization of user-supplied input to elevate their privileges and execute arbitrary commands directly on the appliance operating system.
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< 8.2.17>= 9.2, < 9.2.8>= 10.0, < 10.0.4CVSS 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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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 the installed McAfee Web Gateway versionAccess the admin UI dashboard or run 'mwg-cli version' via SSH to retrieve the exact version numberAffected if The installed version falls into any of these ranges: < 8.2.17, >= 9.2 and < 9.2.8, or >= 10.0 and < 10.0.4
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Confirm the web UI is enabledCheck the appliance configuration via CLI using 'show web-ui' or review the management interface settings in the admin dashboard under System > Appearance > Security SettingsAffected if The web UI administrative interface is accessible and enabled on the appliance
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Verify the troubleshooting page is accessibleNavigate to the troubleshooting page in the web UI (typically /troubleshoot or similar endpoint) or check that the troubleshooting module is loaded in the admin interfaceAffected if The troubleshooting page is reachable without additional security restrictions beyond standard authentication
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Confirm presence of user accounts with web UI accessReview user accounts in the web UI under Users > User Management or via CLI using 'show users' to enumerate accounts with login privilegesAffected if There exists any authenticated user account (even low-privilege) that can log into the web UI, as the vulnerability allows privilege escalation from any authenticated session
You are affected if your McAfee Web Gateway version is less than 8.2.17, between 9.2 and 9.2.7, or between 10.0 and 10.0.3, and the web UI with troubleshooting functionality is enabled and accessible to any authenticated user.
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 data8.2.179.2.810.0.4
Upgrade McAfee Web Gateway to version 9.2.8 or later to receive the patch for this vulnerability.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-23885 — 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-2021-23885 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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