CVE-2023-47201: 
Trend Micro Apex One Agent vulnerability analysis and mitigation

A plug-in manager origin validation vulnerability (CVE-2023-47201) was discovered in the Trend Micro Apex One security agent. The vulnerability was reported on November 14, 2023, and affects Trend Micro Apex One 2019 and Apex One as a Service versions prior to 14.0.12737. This security flaw received a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (HIGH) (NVD, ZDI Advisory).

The vulnerability exists within the Apex One Client Plug-in Service Manager and results from insufficient validation of the origin of commands. The issue has been assigned a CVSS vector of CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H, indicating local access is required with low attack complexity and privileges needed (ZDI Advisory).

A successful exploitation of this vulnerability allows an attacker to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code in the context of SYSTEM. However, the attacker must first obtain the ability to execute low-privileged code on the target system to exploit this vulnerability (Trend Micro Advisory).

Trend Micro has released security updates to address this vulnerability. For Apex One 2019 (On-prem), users should upgrade to SP1 CP 12526. For Apex One as a Service, the September 2023 Monthly Patch (202309) with Agent Version 14.0.12737 or later is required (Trend Micro Advisory).

The vulnerability was discovered and reported by security researcher Lays (@_L4ys) of TRAPA Security working with Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative (Trend Micro Advisory).