CVE-2023-52094
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 · uneditedAn updater link following vulnerability in the Trend Micro Apex One agent could allow a local attacker to abuse the updater to delete an arbitrary folder, leading for a local privilege escalation on affected installations. Please note: 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 confidenceThis is a local privilege escalation vulnerability in the Trend Micro Apex One agent's updater component. The updater follows links in a way that allows a low-privileged attacker to delete arbitrary folders on the system, which can be leveraged to escalate privileges to SYSTEM level.
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< 14.0.12849= 2019CVSS 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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Confirm Apex One agent is installedCheck installed programs list via Windows Registry (HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall) or use 'Get-ItemProperty' PowerShell command to locate Trend Micro Apex OneAffected if The Apex One agent is present on the system
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Retrieve installed Apex One versionCheck the version of the installed Apex One agent through the Windows Registry property 'DisplayVersion' or via the product's built-in version information in the agent program folderAffected if The version cannot be determined or shows as installed
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Compare version against affected rangeCompare your installed version number to the affected range: versions earlier than 14.0.12849Affected if Installed version is below 14.0.12849 (for example, 14.0.x before 12849, or version 2019)
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Verify updater component is presentLocate the Apex One updater component directory within the agent installation folder - typically contains update-related executables or configuration filesAffected if The updater component exists and is enabled on the system
If Trend Micro Apex One agent is installed with a version lower than 14.0.12849 and the updater component is present, the environment is affected by this local 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.
dbcve · scoped14.0.12849
Apply the vendor-supplied patch or update to the Trend Micro Apex One agent to a version that addresses this vulnerability. Organizations should prioritize patching given the local privilege escalation impact.
14.0.12849 or later
- Upgrade Apex One agent to version 14.0.12849 or later to address the symlink vulnerability in the updater component
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-52094 — 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-2023-52094 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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