CVE-2021-28647
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 · uneditedTrend Micro Password Manager version 5 (Consumer) is vulnerable to a DLL Hijacking vulnerability which could allow an attacker to inject a malicious DLL file during the installation progress and could execute a malicious program each time a user installs a program.
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 confidenceTrend Micro Password Manager version 5 (Consumer) contains a DLL hijacking vulnerability in its installer. During installation, the application loads DLLs from locations where an attacker could place a malicious DLL, achieving arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the installer. This could result in persistent code execution each time a user runs the installer for any program.
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>= 5.0, < 5.0.0.1217CVSS 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
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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 installed Trend Micro Password Manager versionCheck the installed version of Trend Micro Password Manager 5 in Windows via Programs and Features, or run: Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*' | Where-Object {$_.DisplayName -like '*Trend Micro Password Manager*'} | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersionAffected if The DisplayVersion is 5.0 or higher but lower than 5.0.0.1217
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Locate the application installation directoryFind the installation path of Trend Micro Password Manager. Common locations: C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\Password Manager\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Trend Micro\Password Manager\Affected if The product is installed in a directory where users have write access to subfolders used during installation
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Verify DLL loading behavior in installerWhen running the installer, monitor DLL loads using Process Monitor (procmon.exe) from Sysinternals to observe which DLLs the installer loads and from which pathsAffected if The installer loads DLLs from user-writable directories or directories outside the application program files folder
You are affected if Trend Micro Password Manager version 5.0 through 5.0.0.1216 is installed and the installer is used in an environment where untrusted users could place malicious DLLs in DLL search paths.
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 data5.0.0.1217
Users should obtain the software from official sources and ensure the vendor patch is applied. Organizations should verify the installation process uses secure DLL loading practices and consider application whitelisting controls as a defense-in-depth measure.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-28647 — 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-2021-28647 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
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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