CVE-2022-3421

Privilege escalation in Google Drive for Desktop on MacOS

HIGH
7.3
CVSS Score
Published: October 17, 2022 at 12:00 AM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 04:59 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorDrive· also runs on 1 platform

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Severity
HIGH7.3
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.1%
SSVC
No known exploit

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

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 64.0
Affected range stops below 64.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
apple-macos (environment)

Runs on — not affected

The affected product only carries this flaw when running on these platforms. The platforms themselves are not vulnerable.

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

References (1)

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-264CWE-269

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