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Active ResponseApplication · Mcafee

CVE-2020-7290

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-05-08
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.4.3 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click

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 · unedited
Privilege Escalation vulnerability in McAfee Active Response (MAR) for Linux prior to 2.4.3 Hotfix 1 allows a malicious script or program to perform functions that the local executing user has not been granted access to.

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 confidence

A privilege escalation vulnerability exists in McAfee Active Response (MAR) for Linux versions prior to 2.4.3 Hotfix 1, allowing a local user with limited privileges to execute functions or access capabilities that have not been explicitly granted to their account.

MitigationUpgrade McAfee Active Response for Linux to version 2.4.3 Hotfix 1 or later to remediate this vulnerability.

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
Active ResponseApplication
Affected:< 2.4.3= 2.4.3

CVSS 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
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify McAfee Active Response is installed
    Run 'rpm -qa | grep -i mar' or 'dpkg -l | grep -i mar' or check for /opt/MAR directory
    Affected if No MAR package or directory found means the system is not affected by this CVE
  2. Check installed MAR version
    Run 'rpm -q mar' or 'dpkg -s mar' or inspect /opt/MAR/version.txt if it exists
    Affected if Version is less than 2.4.3 or equals exactly 2.4.3 (fixed in 2.4.3 Hotfix 1)
  3. Confirm MAR service is running
    Run 'systemctl status mar' or 'ps aux | grep -i mar'
    Affected if Service is active and vulnerable version is installed
  4. Identify unprivileged MAR user accounts
    Check /etc/passwd for user accounts related to MAR, or run 'id <username>' on MAR-specific users
    Affected if Unprivileged local users exist with MAR access and vulnerable version is running

System is affected only if McAfee Active Response for Linux is installed with a version less than 2.4.3 Hotfix 1 and the service is actively running with unprivileged users present.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 2.4.3 or later
Fixed in 2.4.3
Interim mitigation

Upgrade McAfee Active Response for Linux to version 2.4.3 Hotfix 1 or later to remediate this vulnerability.

Fix this in Active Response Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,210
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,936.

Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-7290 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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