Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2021-3187


An issue was discovered in BeyondTrust Privilege Management for Mac before 5.7. An authenticated, unprivileged user can elevate privileges by running a malicious script (that executes as root from a temporary directory) during install time. (This applies to macOS before 10.15.5, or Security Update 2020-003 on Mojave and High Sierra, Later versions of macOS are not vulnerable.)


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 8.8, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 2 products from beyondtrust, from apple organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2023, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.


Published

2023-12-11T23:15:07.530

Last Modified

2025-05-27T15:15:24.260

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 8.8 (HIGH)

Weaknesses
  • Type: Primary
    NVD-CWE-noinfo
  • Type: Secondary
    CWE-276

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application beyondtrust privilege_management_for_mac < 5.7 Yes
Operating System apple mac_os_x < 10.15.5 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x < 10.13.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x < 10.14.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.13.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.13.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.13.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.13.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.13.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.13.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.13.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.13.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.13.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.13.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.13.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.13.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.14.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.14.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.14.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.14.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.14.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.14.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.14.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.14.6 No
Operating System apple mac_os_x 10.14.6 No

References

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For beyondtrust's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.