CVE-2020-7267
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 VirusScan Enterprise (VSE) for Linux prior to 2.0.3 Hotfix 2635000 allows local users to delete files the user would otherwise not have access to via manipulating symbolic links to redirect a McAfee delete action to an unintended file. This is achieved through running a malicious script or program on the target machine.
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 VirusScan Enterprise for Linux prior to 2.0.3 Hotfix 2635000 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability where local users can manipulate symbolic links to redirect McAfee's file deletion functionality to arbitrary files they would not normally have permission to delete. An attacker achieves this by running a malicious script or program that creates a symlink to a target file, causing the antivirus software to delete that file when it attempts to remove the symlink.
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= 8.8CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/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 VirusScan Enterprise for Linux is installedRun 'rpm -qa | grep -i virusscan' or check for /opt/McAfee/vsel processesAffected if The product is not installed, then not affected by this CVE
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Determine installed VirusScan versionRun 'rpm -q | grep -i virusscan' or check /opt/McAfee/vsel/etc/.version fileAffected if Version is 8.8, which falls within the affected range prior to Hotfix 2635000 or 2.0.3
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Check if Hotfix 2635000 has been appliedRun 'rpm -qa | grep 2635000' or examine patch documentation in /opt/McAfee/vsel/doc/Affected if Hotfix 2635000 is NOT present - the system remains vulnerable
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Confirm VirusScan version is 2.0.3 or laterCompare installed version against the fixed version 2.0.3Affected if Version is below 2.0.3 and no hotfix is applied - vulnerability is present
System is affected if VirusScan Enterprise for Linux version 8.0 through 8.8 is running without Hotfix 2635000 applied and without having upgraded to version 2.0.3 or later.
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 dataApply Hotfix 2635000 or upgrade to VirusScan Enterprise for Linux 2.0.3 or later to remediate this vulnerability.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,224.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-7267 — 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-2020-7267 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