CVE-2019-3648
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 Privilege Escalation vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows client in McAfee Total Protection 16.0.R22 and earlier allows administrators to execute arbitrary code via carefully placing malicious files in specific locations protected by administrator permission.
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 confidenceA privilege escalation vulnerability in McAfee Total Protection 16.0.R22 and earlier on Windows allows administrators to execute arbitrary code by placing malicious files in specific protected locations that the McAfee software subsequently loads or executes with elevated privileges. This appears to be a file-based code injection or DLL hijacking issue where the antivirus software insufficiently validates files in privileged directories.
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.r22<= 16.0.r22<= 16.0r22CVSS 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
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/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 productOpen McAfee application or go to Programs and Features in Control Panel to see which McAfee product is installed (Anti Virus Plus, Internet Security, or Total Protection)Affected if Any of these three products is installed
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Check McAfee product versionOpen the McAfee application, go to About or Settings > About, or right-click the McAfee icon in system tray and select About. Record the exact version number displayed.Affected if Version is 16.0.R22 or earlier, or version shows 16.0r22 or lower (case-insensitive)
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Verify Windows operating systemRun 'winver' command or check System Properties to confirm the OS is Windows (this vulnerability only affects Windows)Affected if Running on Windows with a vulnerable McAfee version installed
You are affected if you have McAfee Anti Virus Plus, Internet Security, or Total Protection version 16.0.R22 or earlier installed on Windows.
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 version 16.0.R23 or later. As an interim measure, restrict administrative access to the specific file paths used by McAfee and monitor for unauthorized file placement in those directories.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 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 $3,088.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-3648 — 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-2019-3648 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
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