AgentApplication · Mcafee
CVE-2018-6704
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 · uneditedPrivilege escalation vulnerability in McAfee Agent (MA) for Linux 5.0.0 through 5.0.6, 5.5.0, and 5.5.1 allows local users to perform arbitrary command execution via specific conditions.
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 · high confidenceMcAfee Agent for Linux versions 5.0.0-5.0.6, 5.5.0, and 5.5.1 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability allowing local authenticated users to execute arbitrary commands through specific conditions, likely involving improper privilege handling or race conditions in the agent's execution context.
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
AgentApplication
>= 5.0.0, <= 5.0.6= 5.5.0= 5.5.1CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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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Identify installed McAfee Agent versionRun 'rpm -qa | grep -i mcafee' for RHEL/CentOS or 'dpkg -l | grep -i mcafee' for Debian/Ubuntu to list installed McAfee Agent packages and their version numbersAffected if The installed version is 5.0.0 through 5.0.6, or exactly 5.5.0, or exactly 5.5.1
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Verify McAfee Agent service statusRun 'systemctl status ma' or 'service ma status' to check if the McAfee Agent daemon (ma) is currently running on the systemAffected if The vulnerable version of the agent is actively running as a service
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Inspect agent process privilegesRun 'ps aux | grep -i ma' and check 'ps -p <pid> -o user,uid,gid' for the ma process to determine if it runs with elevated privileges (root or elevated UID)Affected if The McAfee Agent process runs with root privileges and the installed version is in the affected range
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Check agent executable permissionsInspect file permissions with 'ls -la /opt/McAfee/agent/bin/ma' or the equivalent path to see if the executable has SUID or special permissions setAffected if The agent binary has SUID bits or elevated permissions that could enable privilege escalation
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Review agent configuration for privileged execution pathsExamine configuration files in /opt/McAfee/agent/etc/ or /var/McAfee/agent/ for any settings that trigger command execution with elevated privilegesAffected if Configuration files exist that specify commands or scripts run with elevated privileges by the agent
The system is affected if McAfee Agent for Linux version 5.0.0-5.0.6, 5.5.0, or 5.5.1 is installed and running with elevated privileges that could allow a local authenticated user to execute arbitrary commands.
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 Agent for Linux to a patched version beyond 5.5.1. Verify that the agent continues to function correctly after the upgrade and that the specific conditions enabling privilege escalation are no longer present.
Fix this in Agent
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,664.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-6704 — 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-2018-6704 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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- 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
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