CVE-2022-27883
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 · uneditedA link following vulnerability in Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac 11.5 could allow an attacker to create a specially-crafted file as a symlink that can lead to privilege escalation. Please note that an attacker must at least have low-level privileges on the system to attempt 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 confidenceThis is a symlink-based privilege escalation vulnerability in Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac 11.5. An attacker with low-level system privileges can create a specially-crafted symlink that the antivirus software will follow, potentially allowing the attacker to escalate to higher privileges (likely root). The vulnerability stems from improper validation of file operations before acting on them, enabling a time-of-check-time-of-use (TOCTOU) attack.
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<= 11.5CVSS 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
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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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Confirm Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac is installedCheck for the application in /Applications folder or query installed packages using 'ls /Applications | grep -i trend' or 'pkgutil --pkg-info=com.trendmicro.*'Affected if The application is present on the system
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Identify the installed version of Trend Micro Antivirus for MacRun 'defaults read /Applications/Trend Micro Security.app/Contents/Info CFBundleVersion' or check via System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General > Click 'Check for updates' to see current versionAffected if The installed version is 11.5 or any version lower than 11.5
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Check if the antivirus real-time protection or scheduled scan component is enabledOpen Trend Micro Security main interface and verify if 'Real-time Protection' or any active scanning module is turned onAffected if Real-time protection or active scanning components are enabled and the version is <= 11.5
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Verify presence of the antivirus service daemon that handles file operationsCheck for running processes: 'ps aux | grep -i Trend' or check for the service at /Library/Application Support/TrendMicro or similar installation directoriesAffected if The Trend Micro security service daemon is running on the system with a vulnerable version <= 11.5
If Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac version 11.5 or lower is installed with active protection components enabled, the system is affected by this TOCTOU symlink privilege escalation vulnerability.
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 dataApply the vendor patch or update to Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac to the latest version that addresses this vulnerability. Restrict low-privilege user access to sensitive directories as a defense-in-depth measure until patching is complete.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,224.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-27883 — 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-2022-27883 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