What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2021-22038

• Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 1.0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2021-10-29 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-330

Description

On Windows, the uninstaller binary copies itself to a fixed temporary location, which is then executed (the originally called uninstaller exits, so it does not block the installation directory). This temporary location is not randomized and does not restrict access to Administrators only so a potential attacker could plant a binary to replace the copied binary right before it gets called, thus gaining Administrator privileges (if the original uninstaller was executed as Administrator). The vulnerability only affects Windows installers.

Affected products

• VMware InstallBuilder: before 21.6.0 — fixed in 21.6.0
• VMware InstallBuilder: All InstallBuilder versions prior to version 21.6.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: VMware InstallBuilder 21.6.0. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://blog.installbuilder.com/2021/10/installbuilder-2160-released.html
• https://blog.installbuilder.com/2021/10/installbuilder-2160-released.html

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