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CVE Record

CVE-2021-23874: McAfee Total Protection (MTP) privilege escalation vulnerability

Arbitrary Process Execution vulnerability in McAfee Total Protection (MTP) prior to 16.0.30 allows a local user to gain elevated privileges and execute arbitrary code bypassing MTP self-defense.

HighCVSS 8.2Known exploitedUpdated
Glexia's TakeAutomated analysis

Security readout for executives and security teams

McAfee Total Protection before 16.0.30 has a local privilege escalation flaw. A low-privileged local user could bypass product self-defense and run arbitrary code with higher privileges. CISA lists this CVE in KEV, so treat remaining vulnerable installs as urgent even though exposure requires local access and user interaction. Exposure is limited to systems running McAfee Total Protection before 16.0.30. The bundle does not identify specific operating systems, editions, or deployment profiles. Prioritize endpoint inventories where MTP is installed on user-accessible workstations or shared machines. Treat this as a high-priority endpoint remediation item because CISA lists it as known exploited. It is not remotely exploitable from the network, but compromise of a user-accessible endpoint could allow privilege escalation and security control bypass. Mitigation focus: Upgrade McAfee Total Protection to 16.0.30 or later where installed.; Review McAfee FAQ TS103114 for vendor-specific remediation guidance.; Prioritize remediation on user-accessible endpoints and shared systems..

Prepared

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context

These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.

ATT&CK lookup starting points

Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.

cwe · medium confidence lookup

CWE-269: Authorization and privilege behavior lookup

Authorization weaknesses can support privilege escalation and valid-account review, depending on exploit path. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.

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description · low confidence lookup

Execution behavior lookup

The CVE wording references code or command execution, so execution technique review may help defensive triage. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.

Open ATT&CK lookup
description · low confidence lookup

Privilege behavior lookup

The CVE wording references privilege impact, so privilege escalation and authorization behavior review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.

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cve · low confidence lookup

CVE-2021-23874 mapping review

Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
High
CVSS
8.2 (3.1)
Known Exploited
Yes
Published

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

1CVSS vectors
0Timeline events
0ADP providers
2Source links

CISA KEV status

Status
Known exploited
Source
CISA / ADP
Date added
Not provided

CVSS vector scores

1 official score

We collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.

ScoreVersionSeverityVectorExploitImpactSource
8.2CVSS 3.1HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H1.56Primary CVE score

Vulnerability scoring details

Base CVSS 3.1 score

8.2High
CVSS 3.1 vector shape for CVE-2021-23874Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector
NetworkAdjacentLocalPhysical
Attack Complexity
LowHigh
Privileges Required
NoneLowHigh
User Interaction
NoneRequired
Scope
ChangedUnchanged
Confidentiality Impact
HighLowNone
Integrity Impact
HighLowNone
Availability Impact
HighLowNone
Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
McAfee,LLCMcAfee Total Protection (MTP)unspecifiedListed
Weakness

CWE details

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.

CWE-269 · source CWE mapping

Improper Privilege Management

Improper Privilege Management represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.