CVE-2021-23882: Improper Access Control in the ENS installer

Severity: medium (CVSS 4.4 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.3% 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-269

Description

Improper Access Control vulnerability in McAfee Endpoint Security (ENS) for Windows prior to 10.7.0 February 2021 Update allows local administrators to prevent the installation of some ENS files by placing carefully crafted files where ENS will be installed. This is only applicable to clean installations of ENS as the Access Control rules will prevent modification prior to up an upgrade.

Affected products

McAfee LLC McAfee Endpoint Security (ENS): before 10.7.0 — fixed in 10.7.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: McAfee LLC McAfee Endpoint Security (ENS) 10.7.0. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

Get alerted when CVE-2021-23882 or the next vulnerability affects your stack