CVE-2016-3983
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedMcAfee Advanced Threat Defense (ATD) before 3.4.8.178 might allow remote attackers to bypass malware detection by leveraging information about the parent process.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceMcAfee Advanced Threat Defense (ATD) before version 3.4.8.178 contains a vulnerability that allows remote attackers to bypass malware detection by manipulating or leveraging information about the parent process. Attackers can exploit this to evade detection by controlling how malware is spawned or by presenting misleading process context information to the detection engine.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 3.4.4.142CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm McAfee ATD installationLocate the McAfee Advanced Threat Defense installation directory, typically found at C:\Program Files\McAfee\Advanced Threat Defense or /opt/McAfee/ATD, or check Windows Services for 'McAfee Advanced Threat Defense' serviceAffected if McAfee ATD is installed on the system
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Identify installed ATD versionCheck the version of McAfee ATD by inspecting the about page in the ATD web interface, or check the executable properties of the ATD binary (atd.exe or atdservice) in the installation directory, or run 'atdcli -v' if the command-line tool is availableAffected if The displayed version is 3.4.4.142 or earlier
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Verify vulnerability exposureCompare your installed version number against the affected range: any version less than or equal to 3.4.4.142 is vulnerable. Versions 3.4.5.x through 3.4.7.x may also be affected as they are older than the fixed version 3.4.8.178Affected if Installed version is 3.4.4.142 or any version below 3.4.8.178
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Confirm ATD analysis is activeCheck if the ATD service is running and if file submission/analysis features are enabled in the ATD web interface under Configuration > Analysis SettingsAffected if ATD is actively performing malware analysis on submitted files
You are affected if McAfee Advanced Threat Defense is installed and the version is 3.4.4.142 or any version lower than the fixed release 3.4.8.178, with analysis features enabled.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade McAfee Advanced Threat Defense to version 3.4.8.178 or later to remediate this vulnerability.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2016-3983 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2016-3983 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data