CVE-2020-7252
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 · uneditedUnquoted service executable path in DXL Broker in McAfee Data eXchange Layer (DXL) Framework 6.0.0 and earlier allows local users to cause a denial of service and malicious file execution via carefully crafted and named executable 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 · high confidenceUnquoted service executable path in DXL Broker allows local privilege escalation and code execution. When service paths contain spaces and lack quotes, Windows interprets each space-separated word as a potential executable, enabling attackers to place malicious files with matching names in directories along the path to achieve arbitrary code execution.
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<= 6.0.0CVSS 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
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 DXL Broker service is installedOpen Services console (services.msc) and look for 'McAfee DXL Broker' service, or run 'sc query DXLBroker' in Command PromptAffected if The DXLBroker service exists on the system
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Locate the service executable path in registryOpen Registry Editor and navigate to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DXLBroker, or run 'reg query HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DXLBroker /v ImagePath'Affected if The ImagePath registry value exists and returns a path to dxlbroker.exe
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Check if the executable path is unquotedExamine the ImagePath value retrieved from the registry - look for spaces within the path that are not surrounded by quotation marksAffected if The path contains one or more spaces and is not enclosed in double quotes (for example: C:\Program Files\McAfee\DXL\dxlbroker.exe is vulnerable, while "C:\Program Files\McAfee\DXL\dxlbroker.exe" is not)
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Compare installed version to affected rangeRight-click the dxlbroker.exe file in the service path, select Properties, and check the File version, or use 'wmic product where "name like '%McAfee Data Exchange Layer%'" get version'Affected if The installed version is 6.0.0 or lower
The system is affected if the DXLBroker service exists, the ImagePath contains spaces without quotation marks, and the installed version is 6.0.0 or lower.
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 dataUpdate McAfee DXL Framework beyond version 6.0.0, or manually add quotes around the service executable path in the Windows registry under HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DXLBroker\ImagePath.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-7252 — 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-2020-7252 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data