{"id":"CVE-2022-3421","aliases":["EUVD-2022-42798","GHSA-g3jf-h663-mqrx"],"status":"published","title":"Privilege escalation in Google Drive for Desktop on MacOS","description":"An attacker can pre-create the `/Applications/Google\\ Drive.app/Contents/MacOS` directory which is expected to be owned by root to be owned by a non-root user. When the Drive for Desktop installer is run for the first time, it will place a binary in that directory with execute permissions and set its setuid bit. Since the attacker owns the directory, the attacker can replace the binary with a symlink, causing the installer to set the setuid bit on the symlink. When the symlink is executed, it will run with root permissions. We recommend upgrading past version 64.0","severity":{"version":"3.1","score":5.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L","level":"medium","assessor":"cna","from":"cve"},"epss":{"day":"2026-11-10","score":0.00124,"percentile":0.02172,"model":"v2026.06.15"},"facts":{"in_kev":false,"known_exploited":false,"public_exploit":false,"fix_available":false},"cwes":["CWE-264","CWE-269"],"published":"2022-10-17T00:00:00Z","modified":"2026-06-17T04:59:29Z","products":[{"vendor":"google","product":"drive"},{"vendor":"google llc","product":"drive for desktop macos"}],"references":[{"url":"https://support.google.com/a/answer/7577057?hl=en","tags":["x_transferred","Release Notes","Vendor Advisory"]},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-3421"},{"url":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-g3jf-h663-mqrx"}],"sources":{"cve":[{"id":"CVE-2022-3421","title":"Privilege escalation in Google Drive for Desktop on MacOS","description":"An attacker can pre-create the `/Applications/Google\\ Drive.app/Contents/MacOS` directory which is expected to be owned by root to be owned by a non-root user. When the Drive for Desktop installer is run for the first time, it will place a binary in that directory with execute permissions and set its setuid bit. Since the attacker owns the directory, the attacker can replace the binary with a symlink, causing the installer to set the setuid bit on the symlink. When the symlink is executed, it will run with root permissions. We recommend upgrading past version 64.0","status":"published","published":"2022-10-17T00:00:00Z","modified":"2025-04-21T13:47:49.429Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":5.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L","level":"medium","assessor":"cna"}],"cwes":["CWE-264"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:34:33.24035Z"}],"euvd":[{"id":"EUVD-2022-42798","description":"An attacker can pre-create the `/Applications/Google\\ Drive.app/Contents/MacOS` directory which is expected to be owned by root to be owned by a non-root user. When the Drive for Desktop installer is run for the first time, it will place a binary in that directory with execute permissions and set its setuid bit. Since the attacker owns the directory, the attacker can replace the binary with a symlink, causing the installer to set the setuid bit on the symlink. When the symlink is executed, it will run with root permissions. We recommend upgrading past version 64.0","status":"published","published":"2022-10-17T00:00:00Z","modified":"2025-04-21T13:47:49Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":5.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L","level":"medium"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T20:52:19.235376Z"}],"ghsa":[{"id":"GHSA-g3jf-h663-mqrx","title":"An attacker can pre-create the `/Applications/Google\\ Drive.app/Contents/MacOS` directory which...","description":"An attacker can pre-create the `/Applications/Google\\ Drive.app/Contents/MacOS` directory which is expected to be owned by root to be owned by a non-root user. When the Drive for Desktop installer is run for the first time, it will place a binary in that directory with execute permissions and set its setuid bit. Since the attacker owns the directory, the attacker can replace the binary with a symlink, causing the installer to set the setuid bit on the symlink. When the symlink is executed, it will run with root permissions. We recommend upgrading past version 64.0","status":"published","published":"2022-10-18T12:00:32Z","modified":"2023-01-31T05:09:03Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":7.3,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high"}],"cwes":["CWE-269"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:49:29.017576Z"}],"nvd":[{"id":"CVE-2022-3421","description":"An attacker can pre-create the `/Applications/Google\\ Drive.app/Contents/MacOS` directory which is expected to be owned by root to be owned by a non-root user. When the Drive for Desktop installer is run for the first time, it will place a binary in that directory with execute permissions and set its setuid bit. Since the attacker owns the directory, the attacker can replace the binary with a symlink, causing the installer to set the setuid bit on the symlink. When the symlink is executed, it will run with root permissions. We recommend upgrading past version 64.0","status":"published","published":"2022-10-17T20:15:09.853Z","modified":"2026-06-17T04:59:29.71Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":5.6,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L","level":"medium","assessor":"secondary"},{"version":"3.1","score":7.3,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high","assessor":"primary"}],"cwes":["CWE-264","CWE-269"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:07:30.6869Z"}]}}