Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2023-41179

Trend Micro Apex One

Trend Micro Apex One · 2019

Watch CVE-2023-41179 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 7.2 · High
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
4.3%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2023-41179 is a vulnerability affecting Trend Micro Apex One and 2 other products. A vulnerability in the 3rd party AV uninstaller module contained in Trend Micro Apex One (on-prem and SaaS), Worry-Free Business...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed. Listed in CISA KEV.

Who is affected?

Trend Micro Apex One 2019.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Trend Micro Apex One

A vulnerability in the 3rd party AV uninstaller module contained in Trend Micro Apex One (on-prem and SaaS), Worry-Free Business Security and Worry-Free Business Security Services could allow an attacker to manipulate the module to execute arbitrary commands on an affected installation.

Note that an attacker must first obtain administrative console access on the target system in order to exploit this vulnerability.

trendmicro Affected
apex_one
2019
trendmicro Affected
worry-free_business_security
10.0
trendmicro Affected
worry-free_business_security_services
Before *
Trend Micro, Inc. Affected
Trend Micro Apex One
Before 14.0.0.12380 Before 14.0.12637
Trend Micro, Inc. Affected
Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security
Before 10.0 SP1 Build 2495
Trend Micro, Inc. Affected
Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security Services
Before 6.7.3578 / 14.3.1105
Published
19 Sep 2023
Exploitation Reported
21 Sep 2023
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
High
User interaction
None

Tags

cisa nessus_scanner

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

CISA

Recorded 21 Sep 2023

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
CISA First 2023-09-21 00:00 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
0
0
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Nessus https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/192567 02 Jun 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

7.2 High

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

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

EPSS

4.3%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Weaknesses

Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') CWE-94

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 09:26 UTC

    Nessus plugin available

    Scanner coverage available

  2. 00:00 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  3. 13:44 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  4. 14:57 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

Start 14-day Pro trial Read API docs
  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2023-41179

Sample API response 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2023-41179",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 7.2,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.04251,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}