CVE-2021-43771
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 Antivirus for Mac 2021 v11 (Consumer) is vulnerable to an improper access control privilege escalation vulnerability that could allow an attacker to establish a connection that could lead to full local privilege escalation within the application. Please note that an attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system in order to exploit this vulnerability.
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 confidenceTrend Micro Antivirus for Mac 2021 v11 contains an improper access control vulnerability that allows a low-privileged attacker to escalate to full local privileges within the application. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of access rights, enabling an attacker with initial low-privileged code execution to bypass security boundaries and gain elevated permissions.
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>= 11.0, < 11.0.2163CVSS 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 Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac is installedOpen Terminal and run: ls /Applications | grep -i 'trend micro' or system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType | grep -i 'trend micro'Affected if No Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac app is found in /Applications or system profiler output is empty
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Identify the installed version of Trend Micro Antivirus for MacRun: defaults read /Applications/Trend Micro Security.app/Contents/Info CFBundleShortVersionString (adjust path if app name differs slightly)Affected if Version returned is blank or app is not found at that path
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Compare installed version against vulnerable rangeTake the version number from step 2 and verify it meets ALL of these conditions: version >= 11.0 AND version < 11.0.2163. You may need to parse the version string numerically.Affected if Installed version is 11.0.x where x is any value less than 2163, or any 11.x.x version below 11.0.2163 (versions like 11.0.0 through 11.0.2162 are vulnerable)
A system is affected if Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac 2021 v11 is installed with any version from 11.0.0 through 11.0.2162 (versions below 11.0.2163).
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.
dbcve · scoped11.0.2163
Apply the vendor patch for Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac 2021 v11. Until patched, minimize exposure by restricting local code execution privileges and monitoring for suspicious processes interacting with the antivirus software.
Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac 2021 v11 version 11.0.2163 or later
- Open Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac
- Navigate to the application preferences or help section
- Check for available updates
- Download and install version 11.0.2163 or later
- Restart the application if prompted
- Verify the installed version is 11.0.2163 or higher
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,176.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-43771 — 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-2021-43771 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