Local privilege escalation via writable installation directory
Published Jul 12, 2021 · Updated Apr 30, 2025
Local privilege escalation in the Node.js Windows installer before 16.4.1, 14.17.2, and 12.22.2 allows local users to execute elevated code. The installer assigns overly permissive access to the installation directory, enabling PATH or DLL hijacking from that writable location. Exploitation requires local access and a more privileged user or process to invoke the attacker-controlled binary or DLL.
Summary
What happened
Local privilege escalation in the Node.js Windows installer before 16.4.1, 14.17.2, and 12.22.2 allows local users to execute elevated code. The installer assigns overly permissive access to the installation directory, enabling PATH or DLL hijacking from that writable location. Exploitation requires local access and a more privileged user or process to invoke the attacker-controlled binary or DLL.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2021-22921
- Published
- Jul 12, 2021
- Updated
- Apr 30, 2025
- Vendor
- Node.js
- Product
- Node.js
- Classifications
- CWE-732, T1574.001, T1574.007
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jul 12, 2021CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Apr 30, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=10.0 <10.*
- Affected versionversion=11.0 <11.*
- Affected versionversion=12.0 <12.22.2
- Affected versionversion=13.0 <13.*
- Affected versionversion=14.0 <14.17.2
- Affected versionversion=15.0 <15.*
- Affected versionversion=16.0 <16.4.1
- Affected versionversion=4.0 <4.*
- Affected versionversion=5.0 <5.*
- Affected versionversion=6.0 <6.*
- Affected versionversion=7.0 <7.*
- Affected versionversion=8.0 <8.*
- Affected versionversion=9.0 <9.*
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- HackerOne report 1211160proof of concept · unverified
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
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