Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This weakness lets someone who already has local administrator rights on a machine running vulnerable McAfee Agent disable the agent’s self-protection using a McAfee command-line utility. It is not a remote entry point, but it can weaken endpoint defenses after admin control exists.
Executive priority
Treat as a moderate-priority endpoint hardening issue. It does not create initial access, but it can reduce security control resilience on already-compromised or poorly administered machines.
Technical view
CVE-2020-7253 is an improper access control issue in masvc.exe in McAfee Agent versions before 5.6.4. The CVSS vector is local, high complexity, high privileges required, no user interaction, with high integrity and availability impact and no confidentiality impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to endpoints running McAfee Agent 5.6.x before 5.6.4 where a local administrator account can execute McAfee-supplied tooling. The source bundle does not identify other affected products or versions.
Exploitation context
The CVE record does not indicate CISA KEV listing or active exploitation. Practical abuse requires local administrator privileges first, so this is mainly a defense-evasion and control-disabling risk after endpoint compromise or by a malicious administrator.
Researcher notes
The public data identifies the vulnerable component, privilege requirement, impact profile, and version boundary. It does not provide exploit prevalence, detailed attack paths, or separate mitigations beyond the vendor advisory context.
Mitigation direction
- Check McAfee advisory SB10312 for vendor-approved remediation guidance.
- Upgrade McAfee Agent installations before 5.6.4 to 5.6.4 or later.
- Prioritize systems where local admin rights are broadly assigned.
- Restrict and monitor local administrator access on managed endpoints.
- Confirm endpoint self-protection remains enabled after updates.
Validation and detection
- Inventory McAfee Agent versions across endpoints.
- Flag any McAfee Agent 5.6.x installation below 5.6.4.
- Review endpoint management logs for self-protection disable events.
- Confirm only approved administrators can manage McAfee Agent settings.
- Document exceptions and compensating controls for systems not updated.
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.
CWE-284: Authorization and privilege behavior lookup
Authorization weaknesses can support privilege escalation and valid-account review, depending on exploit path. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2020-7253 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
- 5.7 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
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:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H0.55.2Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
5.7MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=SB10312CVE 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.
Improper Access Control
Improper Access Control represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.