CVE-2021-25264
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 · uneditedIn multiple versions of Sophos Endpoint products for MacOS, a local attacker could execute arbitrary code with administrator privileges.
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 confidenceA local privilege escalation vulnerability in Sophos Endpoint Protection for macOS allows an authenticated local attacker to execute arbitrary code with administrator/root privileges. The attacker would need some level of local system access to exploit this flaw.
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<= 10.0.3<= 9.10.1<= 10.0.3CVSS 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
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/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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Verify Sophos Endpoint Protection is installedOn the macOS target, check for Sophos applications in /Applications folder or use command: ls /Applications | grep -i sophosAffected if No Sophos endpoint protection product is found on the system, the system is not affected by this vulnerability
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Identify which Sophos product is installedExamine the installed application name in /Applications - look for 'Sophos Home' or 'Sophos Intercept X' entriesAffected if Neither Sophos Home nor Sophos Intercept X is installed, the vulnerability does not apply
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Determine the installed version of the Sophos productUse macOS package management or right-click the app in /Applications to select 'Get Info' and view the version number, or use: defaults read /Applications/<appname>.app/Contents/Info CFBundleShortVersionStringAffected if The version cannot be determined or the product is not found
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Compare installed version against affected rangesFor Sophos Home: if version <= 10.0.3, the system is affected. For Sophos Intercept X: if version <= 9.10.1 OR version <= 10.0.3, the system is affectedAffected if The installed version falls within the affected ranges: Sophos Home <= 10.0.3 or Sophos Intercept X <= 9.10.1 or <= 10.0.3, indicating the system is vulnerable
A system is affected if it runs Sophos Home version 10.0.3 or lower, or Sophos Intercept X version 9.10.1 or lower (or 10.0.3 or lower), and the attacker has some level of authenticated local system access.
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 dataApply the vendor-supplied security update for Sophos Endpoint for macOS to the latest version recommended by Sophos. Organizations should review their Sophos deployment and ensure endpoint clients are automatically receiving updates.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,392.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-25264 — 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-2021-25264 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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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.
- 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