CVE-2021-37850
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 · uneditedESET was made aware of a vulnerability in its consumer and business products for macOS that enables a user logged on to the system to stop the ESET daemon, effectively disabling the protection of the ESET security product until a system reboot.
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 user logged onto a macOS system can stop the ESET security daemon, disabling antivirus protection until the next system reboot. This is a local denial-of-service vulnerability that allows unprivileged users to bypass security controls.
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<= 6.10.700<= 6.10.910.0<= 6.10.910.0CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
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.
-
Identify installed ESET productRun 'ls /Applications/ | grep -i eset' to list installed ESET applications, or check '/Library/Application Support/ESET' directory contentsAffected if No ESET product is found, the installation is a newer version than listed, or the product is not one of the three affected products (Cyber Security, Endpoint Antivirus, Endpoint Security)
-
Determine ESET product versionRun 'defaults read /Applications/ESET\ Cyber\ Security.app/Contents/Info CFBundleVersion' (adjust app name for Endpoint products). Alternatively, right-click the app in Finder, select Get Info, and check the Version fieldAffected if The installed version number is equal to or lower than 6.10.700 (for Cyber Security) or 6.10.910.0 (for Endpoint Antivirus/Security)
-
Verify ESET daemon is runningRun 'sudo launchctl list | grep -i eset' or 'ps -ax | grep -i eset' to check if the ESET daemon (eset-daemon or similar) is currently activeAffected if The ESET daemon is not running and was not intentionally stopped, indicating a possible exploitation attempt or that the service crashed
-
Check daemon process ownership and permissionsRun 'ls -la /Library/LaunchDaemons/ | grep -i eset' to inspect the ESET launch daemon plist file permissions, and check if non-privileged users have write access to daemon control mechanismsAffected if Non-root users have write permissions to ESET daemon control files or the launch daemon plist is writable by standard users
You are affected if an ESET product (Cyber Security <=6.10.700, or Endpoint Antivirus/Security <=6.10.910.0) is installed and a local unprivileged user can successfully stop the security daemon, leaving the system without active antivirus protection.
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 dataUsers should apply ESET's security update for affected macOS products to prevent unprivileged users from stopping the ESET daemon. Until patched, monitor for unexpected security product outages.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing1.0 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 $1,200.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-37850 — 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-2021-37850 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
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
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