CVE-2019-3617
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 Total Protection (ToPS) for Mac OS prior to 4.6 allows local users to gain root privileges via incorrect protection of temporary files.
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 Total Protection for macOS prior to version 4.6 contains a local privilege escalation vulnerability that allows unprivileged local users to gain root access through improper protection of temporary files. Attackers can exploit this by manipulating these unprotected temporary files to execute code with elevated privileges.
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< 4.6CVSS 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
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/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 Total Protection versionOpen the McAfee Total Protection application on the macOS system and navigate to the About or Version information section, or use the command-line tool 'mcfp --version' if available, to determine the exact installed version number.Affected if The installed version is any release prior to 4.6 (for example, 4.5.x, 4.0.x, or earlier).
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Locate McAfee temporary directoriesIdentify the temporary directories or folders used by the McAfee Total Protection process. This can be done by inspecting running processes and their open file handles, or by reviewing the application's configuration for temp file paths.Affected if The application creates temporary directories or files in locations that are writable by unprivileged users.
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Inspect temporary file permissionsUse the 'ls -la' command on the identified temporary directories to list their permissions. Check if the directories and files within them are owned by root or a privileged user and whether unprivileged users have write access.Affected if Unprivileged users have write, modify, or delete permissions on the temporary directories or files used by McAfee Total Protection.
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Check for unprotected temp file creationMonitor or inspect whether the application creates temporary files with predictable or user-controllable names in shared locations, or review the application behavior during typical operations like scans or updates.Affected if Temporary files are created with weak file permissions or in locations accessible to unprivileged local users.
A system is affected if McAfee Total Protection for macOS version is below 4.6 AND the application's temporary files/directories are accessible to unprivileged 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 data4.6
Upgrade McAfee Total Protection for Mac OS to version 4.6 or later. As a temporary compensating control, restrict file system permissions on the application's temporary directories and monitor for unauthorized modifications.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-3617 — 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-2019-3617 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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