Skip to content
Noroxi
NVD / CVE Program· CNA trendmicro

CVE-2021-3848: An arbitrary file creation by privilege escalation vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex One, Apex One as a Service, Worry-Free Business Securit

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 22/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.23% (FIRST EPSS).
  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it. A low-privileged account is enough. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • According to the record, no fixed version is available yet.

Low priority for now. Update when a fix is released; follow the vendor's advisory.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

An arbitrary file creation by privilege escalation vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex One, Apex One as a Service, Worry-Free Business Security 10.0 SP1, and Worry-Free Business Security Services could allow a local attacker to create an arbitrary file with higher privileges that could lead to a denial-of-service (DoS) on affected installations. Please note: an attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system in order to exploit this vulnerability.

MediumCVSS 5.5 · v3.1—No exploit No fix recorded
Published
Oct 6, 2021
Updated
Jun 17, 2026
EPSS
0.2% · 14th percentile
CWE
—

Report tools

JSON

Action score

22

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
22 / 40 · 5.5 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.2%

Get told when this record changes

  • Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
  • No public exploit code on record
  • No fixed version yet

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

Follow CVE-2021-3848

When you'll hear from us

  • when it enters CISA KEV
  • when exploit code appears or is weaponized
  • when the record is updated (including a fixed version)
  • when EPSS rises 20 points in a week

One daily email digest (06:00 UTC); connect a webhook for KEV listings and weaponized exploits instantly.

Your free account also gets you

Running WordPress? Scan your site free with WP Lens

  • Stack alerts: add the products and versions you run, get the new CVEs that affect them
  • Uptime monitoring: 1 site, instant email when it goes down
  • Add your domain: subdomains and takeover risk scanned every week (1 domain)
  • 10 scans an hour on the security tools (3 a day without an account), an API key and MCP
  • All your scans in one panel: findings, what changed in the last scan, a report per domain or per client (PDF, share link)
All free tools

Sign up with email · Have an account? Sign in

Free account, no card. Unfollow any time.

Don't want an account? Get "Exploited this week" by email every MondayDon't want an account? RSS feed for trendmicro records

Running WordPress? Scan your site free with WP Lens

Is your version affected? Check it

Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

We use this product, ask for help

Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

VendorProduct
trendmicroapex one
trendmicroworry-free business security
microsoftwindows

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • trendmicro apex one2019
  • trendmicro worry-free business security10.0

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (trendmicro). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • Trend Micro Trend Micro Apex One

    • 2019, SaaSaffected

  • Trend Micro Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security

    • 10.0 SP1, Services (SaaS)affected

Same product

trendmicro: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2025-54948A vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex One (on-premise) management console could allow a pre-authenticated remote attacker to upload malicious KEV
    77This week
  • CVE-2020-8599Trend Micro Apex One (2019) and OfficeScan XG server contain a vulnerable EXE file that could allow a remote attacker to write arbitrary datKEV
    73This week
  • CVE-2020-8467A migration tool component of Trend Micro Apex One (2019) and OfficeScan XG contains a vulnerability which could allow remote attackers to eKEV
    68This week

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2021-32464Aug 4, 2021 · An incorrect permission assignment privilege escalation vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex One, Apex One as a Service and Worry-Free Business
    31Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2021-32465Aug 4, 2021 · An incorrect permission preservation vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex One, Apex One as a Service and OfficeScan XG SP1 could allow a remote
    36Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2021-23139Oct 21, 2021 · A null pointer vulnerability in Trend Micro Apex One and Worry-Free Business Security 10.0 SP1 could allow an attacker to crash the CGI prog
    30Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
  • A low-privileged account is enough.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
none
Integrity
none
Availability
high · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
None
Integrity impact
None
Availability impact
High

Weakness class (CWE)

—

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

nvd-primary

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.

Change log

No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.

References

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records