Endpoint ProtectionApplication · Symantec

CVE-2019-12757

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-11-15
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click

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 · unedited
Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP), prior to 14.2 RU2 & 12.1 RU6 MP10 and Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition (SEP SBE) prior to 12.1 RU6 MP10d (12.1.7510.7002), may be susceptible to a privilege escalation vulnerability, which is a type of issue whereby an attacker may attempt to compromise the software application to gain elevated access to resources that are normally protected from an application or user.

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 confidence

This is a local privilege escalation vulnerability in Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) and Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition (SEP SBE). The vulnerability allows an attacker with low-privileged access to elevate to higher privileges, potentially achieving system-level access. The specific vulnerable component and exploitation method are not detailed in the available description.

MitigationUpdate Symantec Endpoint Protection to version 14.2 RU2 or later (for 14.x) or 12.1 RU6 MP10 or later (for 12.1.x), and SEP SBE to 12.1 RU6 MP10d (12.1.7510.7002) or later to remediate this vulnerability.

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
Endpoint ProtectionApplication
Affected:= 11.0= 12.1= 14.0.0= 14.0.1= 14.2= 12.0

CVSS 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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed SEP version
    Open Windows Registry Editor and navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection\SMC\VERSION or check Add/Remove Programs for the installed version
    Affected if The version listed is 11.0, 12.0, 12.1, 14.0.0, 14.0.1, or 14.2 (any build within these major.minor versions)
  2. Verify SEP services are running
    Open Services.msc and check if 'Symantec Endpoint Protection' service or 'Symantec AntiVirus' service is in Started state, or run 'sc query' for these service names
    Affected if Any SEP service is running on the system (the vulnerability requires the SEP software to be active)
  3. Identify current user privilege level
    Run 'whoami /groups' or check System Properties to see if the current user is in the Users group rather than Administrators
    Affected if The current user is a low-privileged user (non-admin) on a system with vulnerable SEP version running

If the installed SEP version is 11.0, 12.0, 12.1, 14.0.x, or 14.2 and the SEP service is running, a low-privileged local user may be able to escalate privileges

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update Symantec Endpoint Protection to version 14.2 RU2 or later (for 14.x) or 12.1 RU6 MP10 or later (for 12.1.x), and SEP SBE to 12.1 RU6 MP10d (12.1.7510.7002) or later to remediate this vulnerability.

Fix this in Endpoint Protection Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-12757 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-12757 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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