CVE-2019-3636
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 · uneditedA File Masquerade vulnerability in McAfee Total Protection (MTP) version 16.0.R21 and earlier in Windows client allowed an attacker to read the plaintext list of AV-Scan exclusion files from the Windows registry, and to possibly replace excluded files with potential malware without being detected.
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 Total Protection stores AV scan exclusion file paths in plaintext in the Windows registry. An attacker with local access can read these exclusions to identify files that won't be scanned, then potentially replace those excluded files with malware that will execute undetected.
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<= 16.0.r21CVSS 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 Total Protection is installedCheck for McAfee Total Protection in Windows Programs and Features, or search for 'mcapexe.exe' or 'McAfee' in Program Files directoriesAffected if McAfee Total Protection is present on the system
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Determine installed version of McAfee Total ProtectionOpen Programs and Features, select McAfee Total Protection, and note the version displayed, or right-click the McAfee icon in the system tray and select 'About'Affected if Version is 16.0.r21 or earlier (any version up to and including 16.0.R21)
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Locate the Windows registry key containing scan exclusionsSearch the Windows registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or HKEY_CURRENT_USER for keys containing terms like 'Exclusion', 'ExcludedPaths', or 'ScanExclude' related to McAfee antivirusAffected if Registry keys storing exclusion paths exist on the system
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Examine exclusion entries for plaintext storageOpen the identified exclusion registry keys using regedit and view the data values to confirm they contain plaintext file paths rather than encrypted or hashed valuesAffected if Exclusion paths are stored as readable, plaintext file path strings
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Verify registry key permissionsRight-click the exclusion registry key in regedit, select Permissions, and review which users or groups have Read accessAffected if Standard or low-privilege users have Read access to the exclusion registry keys
A system is affected if McAfee Total Protection version 16.0.r21 or earlier is installed and the registry keys storing scan exclusion paths are readable by standard users in plaintext format.
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 Total Protection to a version newer than 16.0.R21. As a compensating control, restrict registry key permissions for the exclusion list to prevent unauthorized reads.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation2.0 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-2019-3636 — 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-2019-3636 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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