CVE-2020-7291
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 Active Response (MAR) for Mac 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 confidenceMcAfee Active Response (MAR) for Mac versions prior to 2.4.3 Hotfix 1 contain a privilege escalation vulnerability that allows a malicious script or program running with a local user's privileges to execute functions or access resources that the user has not been granted permission for. This is a local privilege escalation issue in a security product designed to monitor endpoint activity.
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< 2.4.3= 2.4.3CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify McAfee Active Response for Mac is installedCheck for McAfee Active Response in /Applications/ or look for the McAfee menubar icon on macOS. You can also use Spotlight search for 'McAfee Active Response' or check /Library/Application Support/McAfee/ for MAR-related directories.Affected if McAfee Active Response for Mac is not installed on the system
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Identify the installed MAR versionOpen McAfee Active Response from the menubar or Applications folder, then navigate to Help > About McAfee Active Response to view the version number. Alternatively, check /Library/Application Support/McAfee/ for version files or use the command 'ls -la' on the MAR application bundle in /Applications/ to inspect Info.plist for version details.Affected if Unable to determine the version from the application
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Compare version against the affected rangeIf the version is visible, compare it to the affected versions: any version prior to 2.4.3, or exactly version 2.4.0 through 2.4.3 (inclusive), is vulnerable.Affected if Installed version is 2.4.3 or earlier (for example, 2.4.2, 2.4.0, 2.3.x, etc.)
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Confirm if Hotfix 1 is appliedIf the version shows as 2.4.3, verify whether Hotfix 1 is installed by checking the About dialog for 'Hotfix 1' or by reviewing the McAfee update history. Versions below 2.4.3 or 2.4.3 without Hotfix 1 remain affected.Affected if Version is 2.4.3 without Hotfix 1 applied
A user is affected if McAfee Active Response for Mac is installed with a version lower than 2.4.3 Hotfix 1, including version 2.4.3 without the hotfix.
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 data2.4.3
Upgrade McAfee Active Response for Mac to version 2.4.3 Hotfix 1 or later to remediate this vulnerability.
- 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-2020-7291 — 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-2020-7291 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