AgentApplication · Mcafee
CVE-2018-6705
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 · moderate confidenceLocal privilege escalation vulnerability in McAfee Agent for Linux versions 5.0.0-5.0.6, 5.5.0, and 5.5.1 allows authenticated local users to execute arbitrary commands through specific conditions, likely by exploiting improper privilege handling in the agent's executable paths or configurations.
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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Verify McAfee Agent for Linux is installedRun 'ls -la /opt/McAfee/agent/' or 'ls -la /opt/McAfee/ma/' to check for the McAfee Agent installation directoryAffected if The directory does not exist, meaning McAfee Agent is not installed and this CVE does not apply
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Determine the installed McAfee Agent versionCheck for a version file such as '/opt/McAfee/agent/version' or run '/opt/McAfee/agent/bin/cmdagent -p' or 'rpm -q McaLinuxAgent' to retrieve the installed version numberAffected if The version retrieved matches 5.0.0 through 5.0.6, equals 5.5.0, or equals 5.5.1
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Confirm the agent process runs with elevated privilegesRun 'ps aux | grep -i mcafee' or 'pgrep -a cmdagent' and check if the McAfee Agent daemon runs as root or with elevated privilegesAffected if The agent daemon runs as root or elevated user and the version is within the affected range
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Verify the executable path permissionsInspect permissions on /opt/McAfee/agent/bin/ and check for world-writable directories or files that could allow privilege escalation through path manipulationAffected if World-writable permissions exist on agent binary directories and version is affected
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Check for authenticated local user accessConfirm you have an authenticated local user account on the system; the vulnerability requires the attacker to be an authenticated local userAffected if An authenticated local user exists on the system and the McAfee Agent version is within the affected range
The system is affected if McAfee Agent for Linux is installed and the installed version falls within 5.0.0-5.0.6, 5.5.0, or 5.5.1, with the agent running with elevated privileges accessible to authenticated local users.
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 version beyond the affected releases (5.0.7+, 5.5.2+) or apply vendor-supplied patches to remediate the privilege escalation vector.
Fix this in Agent
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation2.0 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 $3,152.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-6705 — 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-2018-6705 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