Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2020-7254 lets a low-privileged local user on McAfee Advanced Threat Defense 4.x gain higher privileges through improper sudo access controls in the CLI. This is mainly a risk where affected ATD appliances are still running versions before 4.8.2 and have local accounts or compromised credentials.
Executive priority
Treat this as a high-priority remediation for any affected ATD appliance with local users or shared administrative access. It is not described as remotely exploitable, but compromise of a security appliance can undermine monitoring and response operations.
Technical view
The flaw is a local privilege escalation in McAfee Advanced Threat Defense 4.x before 4.8.2. The CLI improperly controls sudo access, allowing authenticated local users to execute arbitrary code. CVSS 3.1 is 7.7 with local access, high complexity, low privileges, no user interaction, changed scope, and high integrity and availability impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to McAfee Advanced Threat Defense 4.x deployments running versions earlier than 4.8.2. Internet exposure alone is not enough; exploitation requires local access with low privileges, such as an existing CLI account or previously compromised appliance credentials.
Exploitation context
The provided sources do not show CISA KEV listing or confirmed active exploitation. The attack path is post-authentication and local, but successful exploitation could let a user run arbitrary code with elevated privileges on a security appliance.
Researcher notes
Focus validation on version, local account posture, and CLI privilege boundaries. The CVE maps to improper privilege management and access control weaknesses. The source bundle does not provide exploit details, public exploitation evidence, or alternate mitigations beyond the fixed version boundary.
Mitigation direction
- Identify all McAfee ATD appliances and record their installed versions.
- Upgrade affected ATD 4.x systems to 4.8.2 or later per McAfee guidance.
- Restrict CLI access to trusted administrators only.
- Review local accounts and remove unnecessary low-privileged users.
- Monitor vendor advisory SB10311 for any environment-specific instructions.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether each appliance runs McAfee ATD 4.x before 4.8.2.
- Check administrative records for CLI-enabled local users.
- Review appliance logs for unusual CLI or sudo-related activity.
- Verify access controls after upgrade or mitigation.
- Document compensating controls where immediate upgrade is not possible.
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-264: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. 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 lookupCWE-269: 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 lookupExecution behavior lookup
The CVE wording references code or command execution, so execution technique review may help defensive triage. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupPrivilege behavior lookup
The CVE wording references privilege impact, so privilege escalation and authorization behavior review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2020-7254 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
- High
- CVSS
- 7.7 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/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:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:H1.16Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
7.7HighVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=SB10311CVE 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.
Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls
Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.
Improper Privilege Management
Improper Privilege Management represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.