CVE-2021-23886
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 · uneditedDenial of Service vulnerability in McAfee Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Endpoint for Windows prior to 11.6.100 allows a local, low privileged, attacker to cause a BSoD through suspending a process, modifying the processes memory and restarting it. This is triggered by the hdlphook driver reading invalid memory.
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 denial of service vulnerability exists in the hdlphook driver of McAfee Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Endpoint for Windows prior to version 11.6.100. A local, low-privileged attacker can trigger a Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) by suspending a protected process, modifying its memory, and restarting it, causing the driver to read invalid memory.
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< 11.6.100.41CVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 DLP Endpoint is installedOpen Control Panel > Programs and Features, or run 'Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product' in PowerShell, and look for 'McAfee Data Loss Prevention Endpoint' in the installed programs list.Affected if McAfee DLP Endpoint is not present in the installed programs list, then the system is not affected by this specific vulnerability.
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Check installed DLP Endpoint versionIn Programs and Features, click on McAfee Data Loss Prevention Endpoint and view the Version column, or run 'reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\McAfee\DLP" /v ProductVersion' in Command Prompt.Affected if The displayed version is lower than 11.6.100.41, indicating the system is running a vulnerable version.
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Verify hdlphook driver presenceOpen Device Manager, expand 'System devices', and look for 'hdlphook' driver, or check the driver file at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\hdlphook.sys if it exists.Affected if The hdlphook driver exists on the system, making it a potential target for the memory corruption exploit.
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Confirm driver version if accessibleRight-click the hdlphook driver in Device Manager, select Properties, and check the Driver version, or right-click the sys file and view Properties > Details > File version.Affected if The driver version is below the threshold corresponding to the 11.6.100.41 patch level.
A system is affected if McAfee Data Loss Prevention Endpoint is installed and its version is below 11.6.100.41, as this version range contains the vulnerable hdlphook driver.
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 data11.6.100.41
Upgrade McAfee DLP Endpoint for Windows to version 11.6.100 or later to patch the vulnerable hdlphook driver.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-23886 — 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-2021-23886 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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