CVE-2021-31844: Local Privilege Escalation in McAfee DLP Endpoint for Windows

Severity: high (CVSS 7.3 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: 2021-09-17 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-120

Description

A buffer overflow vulnerability in McAfee Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Endpoint for Windows prior to 11.6.200 allows a local attacker to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges through placing carefully constructed Ami Pro (.sam) files onto the local system and triggering a DLP Endpoint scan through accessing a file. This is caused by the destination buffer being of fixed size and incorrect checks being made on the source size.

Affected products

McAfee,LLC McAfee Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Endpoint for Windows: before 11.6.200 — fixed in 11.6.200

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: McAfee,LLC McAfee Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Endpoint for Windows 11.6.200. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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