CVE-2019-3651
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 · uneditedInformation Disclosure vulnerability in McAfee Advanced Threat Defense (ATD prior to 4.8 allows remote authenticated attackers to gain access to ePO as an administrator via using the atduser credentials, which were too permissive.
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 Advanced Threat Defense (ATD) versions prior to 4.8 contain an information disclosure vulnerability where the default atduser credentials have overly permissive permissions. This allows a remote authenticated attacker to leverage these credentials to gain unauthorized administrative access to ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO), effectively achieving privilege escalation from a standard user to an administrator.
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< 4.8CVSS 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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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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Confirm McAfee ATD installationLocate the McAfee Advanced Threat Defense product on the system, typically installed as a Windows service or Linux daemon named 'ATD' or 'McAfeeATD'. Use system inventory tools or check installed programs to verify presence.Affected if McAfee ATD is installed on the system
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Identify installed ATD versionAccess the ATD administrative interface or use the product's built-in version check mechanism (such as the About page in the management console, a version command-line tool, or the Windows Programs and Features panel). Compare the version number against the 4.8 threshold.Affected if The installed version is any release prior to 4.8 (for example, 4.7.x, 4.6.x, or earlier)
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Verify atduser account existence and permissionsLocate and examine the atduser account within the ATD user management system or local operating system accounts where ATD is installed. Check whether this default user account has been retained and review its assigned permission levels.Affected if The default atduser account exists and possesses administrative or elevated privileges rather than restricted standard-user permissions
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Check ePolicy Orchestrator integration statusReview the ATD configuration settings or ePO management console to determine whether ATD is registered, connected, or integrated with an ePolicy Orchestrator server.Affected if ATD is configured to communicate with or is registered in an ePO environment, enabling the privilege escalation path described
The environment is affected if McAfee ATD version is below 4.8, the default atduser account remains in use with elevated permissions, and ATD maintains an active integration with ePolicy Orchestrator.
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 data4.8
Upgrade McAfee ATD to version 4.8 or later to obtain the corrected atduser credential configuration, or manually review and restrict the permissions associated with the atduser account if upgrading is not immediately feasible.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 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-2019-3651 — 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-2019-3651 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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