ForticlientApplication · Fortinet
CVE-2021-26089
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 · uneditedAn improper symlink following in FortiClient for Mac 6.4.3 and below may allow an non-privileged user to execute arbitrary privileged shell commands during installation phase.
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 confidenceThis is a local privilege escalation vulnerability in FortiClient for Mac versions 6.4.3 and below. During the installation phase, improper symlink following allows a non-privileged user to execute arbitrary privileged shell commands, effectively achieving root access on the affected 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
ForticlientApplication
<= 6.4.3CVSS 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
- 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check if FortiClient is installed on the Mac systemOpen Terminal and run: ls -la /Applications | grep -i forti or look for FortiClient.app in the /Applications folderAffected if FortiClient.app exists in /Applications
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Determine the installed FortiClient versionRun: defaults read /Applications/FortiClient.app/Contents/Info CFBundleVersion or use: pkgutil --pkg-info=com.fortinet.forticlient 2>/dev/nullAffected if The version displayed is 6.4.3 or lower, or the command returns no version information but FortiClient is present
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Verify the exact version number against affected rangeCompare the extracted version to the affected range: any version <= 6.4.3 is vulnerable. Versions 6.4.4 and later are not affectedAffected if The installed version is 6.4.3 or any earlier version such as 6.4.2, 6.4.1, 6.4.0, 6.2.x, 6.0.x, etc.
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Confirm this is the Mac platform vulnerabilityVerify the product is FortiClient for Mac (not Windows or Linux). The vulnerability only affects the macOS installerAffected if The software is FortiClient running on macOS and the version is 6.4.3 or below
A user is affected if FortiClient for Mac is installed and the installed version is 6.4.3 or any earlier version, as this allows a local non-privileged user to potentially escalate to root privileges via symlink manipulation during installation.
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 dataUpgrade FortiClient for Mac to version 6.4.4 or later. This is a local attack requiring user access to the system, so restrict physical and console access to multi-user systems until the patch is applied.
Fix this in Forticlient
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,664.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-26089 — 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-2021-26089 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
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