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Total ProtectionApplication · Mcafee

CVE-2021-23891

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-05-12
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 16.0.32 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click

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 · unedited
Privilege Escalation vulnerability in McAfee Total Protection (MTP) prior to 16.0.32 allows a local user to gain elevated privileges by impersonating a client token which could lead to the bypassing of MTP self-defense.

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 confidence

McAfee Total Protection prior to version 16.0.32 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability where a local user can impersonate a client token, bypassing MTP self-defense mechanisms and gaining elevated privileges on the affected system.

MitigationUpdate McAfee Total Protection to version 16.0.32 or later to remediate this vulnerability.

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
Total ProtectionApplication
Affected:< 16.0.32

CVSS 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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify McAfee Total Protection is installed
    Check for McAfee Total Protection in the Windows Registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\McAfee\MSC or look in Add/Remove Programs for an entry named 'McAfee Total Protection'
    Affected if McAfee Total Protection is not found in the system
  2. Retrieve the installed version number
    Open Windows Registry and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\McAfee\MSC\ProductVersion, or right-click the McAfee Total Protection icon and select 'About' to view the version
    Affected if Unable to retrieve a version number from the installed McAfee Total Protection
  3. Compare version against the affected range
    Compare the retrieved version number to 16.0.32. For example, if the version shows 16.0.31, 16.0.30, or any version prior to 16.0.32, it falls within the affected range
    Affected if The installed version is lower than 16.0.32 (for example: 16.0.31, 16.0.7, 16.0.0, etc.)

A system is affected if McAfee Total Protection is installed and the version number is below 16.0.32, as this version threshold is where the token impersonation vulnerability was addressed.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 16.0.32 or later
Fixed in 16.0.32
Interim mitigation

Update McAfee Total Protection to version 16.0.32 or later to remediate this vulnerability.

Fix this in Total Protection Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,750
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,800.

Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-23891 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data