CVE-2020-7273
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 · uneditedAccessing functionality not properly constrained by ACLs vulnerability in the autorun start-up protection in McAfee Endpoint Security (ENS) for Windows Prior to 10.7.0 April 2020 Update allows local users to delete or rename programs in the autorun key via manipulation of some parameters.
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 confidenceA local ACL bypass vulnerability in McAfee Endpoint Security (ENS) for Windows prior to version 10.7.0 April 2020 Update allows local users to manipulate parameters to delete or rename programs in the autorun registry key. The autorun start-up protection feature does not properly constrain functionality by Access Control Lists, enabling unauthorized modification of startup entries.
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= 10.5.0= 10.5.1= 10.5.2= 10.5.3= 10.5.4= 10.5.5= 10.6.0CVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
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 Endpoint Security is installedCheck the Windows registry at HKLM\SOFTWARE\McAfee\Endpoint-Security or use 'wmic product get name,version' to list installed softwareAffected if McAfee Endpoint Security for Windows is not present on the system
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Determine the installed ENS versionQuery the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\McAfee\Endpoint-Security\ProductVersion or check the file version of MfeEsp.exe in the ENS installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\McAfee\Endpoint Security\)Affected if The installed version matches one of the affected versions: 10.5.0, 10.5.1, 10.5.2, 10.5.3, 10.5.4, 10.5.5, or 10.6.0
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Confirm the autorun start-up protection feature is enabledCheck the ENS policy settings or examine the Windows autorun registry keys under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run to see if ENS is monitoring and protecting these entriesAffected if The autorun start-up protection feature is active and ENS is controlling registry-based startup entries
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Inspect ACL permissions on autorun registry keysUse regedit to view the permissions on the Run registry keys (HKLM and HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run) and check if non-admin users have elevated write permissions that should be restrictedAffected if Non-administrator accounts have modify or full control permissions on keys they should not have access to, indicating the ACL bypass is present
The system is affected if McAfee Endpoint Security for Windows is installed with a version between 10.5.0 and 10.6.0 inclusive and the autorun start-up protection feature is enabled, allowing unauthorized manipulation of startup registry entries due to insufficient ACL restrictions.
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 Endpoint Security for Windows to version 10.7.0 April 2020 Update or later to receive the ACL fix that properly constrains autorun key manipulation.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 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 $2,800.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-7273 — 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-2020-7273 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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