CVE-2020-7320
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 · uneditedProtection Mechanism Failure vulnerability in McAfee Endpoint Security (ENS) for Windows prior to 10.7.0 September 2020 Update allows local administrator to temporarily reduce the detection capability allowing otherwise detected malware to run via stopping certain Microsoft services.
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 Endpoint Security for Windows prior to version 10.7.0 September 2020 Update contains a Protection Mechanism Failure where a local administrator can stop certain Microsoft services to temporarily reduce ENS detection capabilities, allowing malware that would normally be blocked to execute.
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< 10.7.0CVSS 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
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:L
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 for Windows versionOpen Programs and Features in Windows Control Panel, find 'McAfee Endpoint Security' or 'McAfee Endpoint Security for Windows', and check the version number in the Installed On column. Alternatively, open McAfee Endpoint Security GUI and look at Help > About.Affected if The installed version is lower than 10.7.0 (for example, 10.6.x, 10.5.x, or earlier).
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Confirm local administrator privilegesCheck if the current user account has local administrator rights on the Windows system by running 'whoami /groups' in Command Prompt and looking for the 'BUILTIN\Administrators' group or running 'net localgroup Administrators'.Affected if The account has local administrator privileges, which is required to stop the Microsoft services referenced in this vulnerability.
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Identify if ENS threat prevention is activeOpen McAfee Endpoint Security, go to the Real-Time Scanning or Threat Prevention section, and verify if protection is currently enabled. In the Windows Services console (services.msc), check if the 'McAfee Endpoint Security Service' or 'McAfee Endpoint Security Firewall' service is running.Affected if The ENS threat prevention or real-time scanning component is enabled and running (the vulnerability allows an admin to stop certain services to reduce detection capabilities).
You are affected if you are running a version of McAfee Endpoint Security for Windows lower than 10.7.0 and have a local administrator account on the system.
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 data10.7.0
Update McAfee Endpoint Security for Windows to version 10.7.0 September 2020 Update or later to remediate this vulnerability.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,408.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-7320 — 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-2020-7320 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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