What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2021-23873: McAfee Total Protection (MTP) privilege escalation vulnerability

• Severity: medium (CVSS 6.1 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.7% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2021-02-10 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-59

Description

Privilege Escalation vulnerability in McAfee Total Protection (MTP) prior to 16.0.30 allows a local user to gain elevated privileges and perform arbitrary file deletion as the SYSTEM user potentially causing Denial of Service via manipulating Junction link, after enumerating certain files, at a specific time.

Affected products

• McAfee,LLC McAfee Total Protection (MTP): before 16.0.30 — fixed in 16.0.30

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: McAfee,LLC McAfee Total Protection (MTP) 16.0.30. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?&id=TS103114
• https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-21-175/
• http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?&id=TS103114
• https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-21-175/

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