CVE-2021-23877: McAfee Total Protection (MTP) - Privilege Escalation vulnerability

Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2021-10-26 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-269

Description

Privilege escalation vulnerability in the Windows trial installer of McAfee Total Protection (MTP) prior to 16.0.34_x may allow a local user to run arbitrary code as the admin user by replacing a specific temporary file created during the installation of the trial version of MTP.

Affected products

McAfee,LLC McAfee Total Protection (MTP): before 16.0.34 — fixed in 16.0.34

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: McAfee,LLC McAfee Total Protection (MTP) 16.0.34. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://service.mcafee.com/webcenter/portal/cp/home/articleview?articleId=TS103215
https://service.mcafee.com/webcenter/portal/cp/home/articleview?articleId=TS103215

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