Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This is a legacy McAfee agent issue where an authenticated remote user could overwrite files through a report-writing ActiveX control. The business concern is unauthorized file changes on systems running affected McAfee management agents, especially older unmanaged or forgotten installations.
Executive priority
Treat this as a legacy hygiene and credential-abuse risk. Prioritize if affected McAfee agents remain on business-critical systems or in environments with weak credential controls.
Technical view
CVE-2009-5115 affects McAfee Common Management Agent 3.5.5 through 3.5.5.588, 3.6.0 through 3.6.0.608, and McAfee Agent 4.0 before Patch 3. The reported flaw is arbitrary file overwrite via access to a report-writing ActiveX control COM object by remote authenticated users.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely in legacy environments still running old McAfee CMA or McAfee Agent 4.0 builds. Current product exposure is not established in the provided sources.
Exploitation context
The provided sources do not show CISA KEV listing or active exploitation. The described attack requires remote authenticated access, which lowers opportunistic risk but remains relevant where attacker credentials already exist.
Researcher notes
Public details in the supplied bundle are limited: no CVSS, CWE, or exploit evidence is provided. Analysis should stay anchored to authenticated arbitrary file overwrite through the report-writing ActiveX COM object and the listed McAfee versions.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory systems for affected McAfee CMA and McAfee Agent versions.
- Upgrade McAfee Agent 4.0 to Patch 3 or later where applicable.
- Review McAfee Security Bulletin SB10002 for vendor remediation guidance.
- Remove or replace unsupported legacy McAfee agent installations.
- Restrict authenticated access to affected management/reporting components.
Validation and detection
- Confirm installed McAfee CMA and McAfee Agent versions on endpoints and servers.
- Check whether any McAfee Agent 4.0 systems are below Patch 3.
- Verify whether the referenced ActiveX control exists on legacy systems.
- Review endpoint logs for unexpected file overwrite or agent-reporting activity.
- Document unsupported installations requiring replacement or compensating controls.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
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CVE-2009-5115 mapping review
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Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Unknown
- CVSS
- Not scored
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS and timeline data
No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=SB10002CVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
- mcafee-cma-file-overwrite(78446)CVE reference · vdb-entry, x_refsource_XF
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.