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Panda AntivirusApplication · Watchguard

CVE-2021-34998

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-01-13
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 20.02.00 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
This vulnerability allows local attackers to escalate privileges on affected installations of Panda Security Free Antivirus 20.2.0.0. An attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system in order to exploit this vulnerability. The specific flaw exists within the use of named pipes. The issue results from allowing an untrusted process to impersonate the client of a pipe. An attacker can leverage this vulnerability to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of SYSTEM. Was ZDI-CAN-14208.

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

Named pipe impersonation vulnerability in Panda Security Free Antivirus 20.2.0.0 allows an attacker with low-privileged code execution to hijack the security context of a privileged process by impersonating the client of a named pipe used by the antivirus service, escalating to SYSTEM privileges.

MitigationUpdate Panda Security Free Antivirus to a version that includes the vendor patch for CVE-2021-34998; verify the named pipe security has been properly hardened to prevent untrusted process impersonation.

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
Panda AntivirusApplication
Affected:< 20.02.00

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 Panda Antivirus is installed
    Check the list of installed programs in Windows via Registry (HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall) or use 'Get-ItemProperty' PowerShell command to find entries containing 'Panda' or 'Watchguard'
    Affected if No Panda Antivirus product is found in the installed programs list, the system is not affected by this specific vulnerability
  2. Identify the installed Panda Antivirus version
    Locate the antivirus installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\Panda Security\ or C:\Program Files\Watchguard\) and check the version information in the main executable or via the program's About/Help section
    Affected if The installed version number is lower than 20.02.00 (for example, 20.2.0.0 as mentioned in the CVE summary), indicating the unpatched version is present
  3. Confirm the antivirus service is running
    Open Services (services.msc) or run 'Get-Service' PowerShell command and look for a Panda Security or Watchguard antivirus service
    Affected if The antivirus service is active and the version is below 20.02.00, making the named pipe impersonation vector accessible to local attackers

A system is affected if Panda Security Free Antivirus or Watchguard Panda Antivirus is installed with a version lower than 20.02.00 and the antivirus service is actively running, allowing a low-privileged local user to exploit the named pipe impersonation vulnerability for privilege escalation.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 20.02.00 or later
Fixed in 20.02.00
Interim mitigation

Update Panda Security Free Antivirus to a version that includes the vendor patch for CVE-2021-34998; verify the named pipe security has been properly hardened to prevent untrusted process impersonation.

Recommended fix High confidence

Panda Antivirus 20.02.00 or later

  1. Download Panda Antivirus version 20.02.00 or later from the official Panda Security website
  2. Install the updated version of Panda Antivirus
  3. Restart the system if prompted to complete the installation
  4. Verify the installed version is 20.02.00 or higher

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Panda Antivirus Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2021-34998 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