Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
McAfee NSM had a password recovery weakness that could expose user passwords to cracking because hashes were unsalted. This affects NSM 8 before 8.2.7.42.2. The business risk is credential compromise of a security management platform, but the published CVSS rates exploitation complexity as high.
Executive priority
Treat this as a moderate-priority security platform issue. Prioritize remediation where NSM is internet-reachable, broadly accessible internally, or used by privileged administrators.
Technical view
CVE-2017-3962 affects the non-certificate-based authentication mechanism in McAfee Network Security Management. The flaw involves password recovery exposing unsalted hashes, allowing attackers to crack user passwords. CVSS 3.0 is 5.6 with network attack vector, high complexity, no privileges, no user interaction, and limited confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely limited to organizations running McAfee Network Security Management 8 before 8.2.7.42.2, especially where the NSM management interface or password recovery workflow is reachable over a network.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not cite active exploitation, and CISA KEV status is false. Exploitation is described as network-based but high complexity, with no required privileges or user interaction.
Researcher notes
The bundle provides limited technical detail: no CWE, no CPEs, and no exploit evidence. Affected scope is stated as McAfee NSM 8 before 8.2.7.42.2. Avoid assuming other McAfee products are affected.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade McAfee NSM to 8.2.7.42.2 or later per vendor guidance.
- Prefer certificate-based authentication where supported and operationally feasible.
- Restrict network access to NSM management interfaces.
- Review McAfee advisory SB10192 for environment-specific instructions.
- Reset potentially exposed NSM user passwords after remediation.
Validation and detection
- Inventory McAfee NSM deployments and record exact versions.
- Confirm whether NSM uses non-certificate-based authentication.
- Verify affected systems are not earlier than 8.2.7.42.2.
- Review password recovery and authentication logs for suspicious activity.
- Check compensating controls limiting NSM management access.
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
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
Credential and access behavior lookup
The CVE wording references authentication or credential exposure, so valid-account and credential-access review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2017-3962 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 5.6 (3.0)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
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 vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L2.23.4Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.0 score
5.6MediumVector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=SB10192CVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
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.