Contact PSIRT
Email:
security_report@mcafee.com
PSIRT Policy Statements
- Actionable
We will not announce product or software vulnerabilities publicly without an actionable workaround, patch, hotfix, or version update; otherwise we would be informing the hacker community that our products are a target, which would put our customers at greater risk. For vulnerabilities with a lot of media attention, such as Heartbleed, we will post a banner stating our awareness and actions.
- No Favorites
To be fair, we disclose product vulnerabilities to all customers at the same time. Large customers typically do not get advance notice. Advance notice might be granted by the CISO on a case-by-case basis, but only with a strict non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
- Discoverers
We give credit to vulnerability discoverers only if:
- They want to be identified as a discoverer.
- They did not "zero day" us or make their research public before the Security Bulletin or KB article was published.
Organizations, individuals, or both can be identified as discoverers.
CVSS Scoring
We use the most current Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) version-CVSS v3.1.
All Security Bulletins must include the CVSS scores for each vulnerability as well as the associated CVSS vectors. The base score is required. Both temporal and environmental scores are optional. Ideally, base scores should match the scores assigned by NIST to CVEs.
Support Notification Service (SNS) Emails
A Support Notification Service (SNS) email is required for all Security Bulletins. To subscribe to SNS emails, go to the
SNS Subscription Preferences site.
Response Policy
Our fix and alert response depends on the highest CVSS base score:
| Priority (Security) |
CVSS Score |
Typical Fix Response* |
SNS |
| P1-Critical |
9.0-10 Critical |
Hotfix |
Alert |
| P2-High |
7.0-8.9 High |
Update |
Notice |
| P3-Medium |
4.0-6.9 Medium |
Update |
Notice |
| P4-Low |
0.0-3.9 Low |
Version update |
Optional |
| P5-Info |
0.0 |
Will not fix; informational |
N/A |
| * |
The fix response is based on the severity of the vulnerability, the product lifecycle, and the feasibility of a fix. The typical fix response described above is not a commitment to produce a hotfix, patch, or version update for all supported product versions. |
External Communication Mechanisms
Our external communication mechanism depends on the CVSS_base score, the number of customer inquiries, and the amount of media attention:
- Security Bulletin (4-10)
- KB Article (2-4)
- Sustaining Statement (0-4)
- Not Needed (0)
| |
CVSS=0
Low |
CVSS 0-3.9
Low |
CVSS 4.0-6.9 Medium |
CVSS 7.0-10
High |
| External Disclosure (CVE)* |
KB article if multiple inquiries; otherwise not needed |
KB article |
Security Bulletin and
SNS |
Security Bulletin and
SNS |
| Customer Disclosure |
Sustaining Statement |
Sustaining Statement |
Security Bulletin and
SNS |
Security Bulletin and
SNS |
| Internal Disclosure |
Not needed |
Document in Release Notes |
Security Bulletin (post-release) and document in Release Notes |
Security Bulletin (post-release) and document in Release Notes |
*By default, we do not issue CVEs for issues that score below 4.0.
Crisis Scenarios
For publicly known high-severity vulnerabilities that affect multiple products, we might publish a Security Bulletin with an update for one product, and then update the Security Bulletin as updates and descriptions for other products become available.
Security Bulletins with multiple vulnerable products will list all products with the following categories:
- Vulnerable and updated
- Vulnerable and not yet updated
- Vulnerable but low risk (given standard deployment best practices)
- Not vulnerable
- Being investigated (optional)
We do not usually publish Security bulletins on Friday afternoons, unless it is a crisis scenario.
Vulnerability vs. Risk Scores
We participate in the industry-standard CVSS vulnerability scoring system. CVSS scores should be considered as a starting point to determine what risk a particular vulnerability might pose to our customers. The CVSS score should not be confused with a risk rating of the seriousness of vulnerabilities that might occur in our products or the associated runtime environments on which our products execute.
The CVSS base score determines our initial response to a given incident.
Security bulletins with multiple vulnerable products will list all products by category. The list below describes what each of the categories means in terms of potential customer impact:
- Vulnerable—A product contains a verified vulnerability. The vulnerability poses some level of risk to customers. The associated CVSS score may be taken as an indication of the seriousness of impact from exploitation of the vulnerability in typical deployment scenarios.
- Not Vulnerable—A product does not contain the vulnerability or the presence of a vulnerable component cannot be exploited in any manner. Use of the product presents no additional risk for customers.
- Vulnerable, but Not Exploitable—A product contains the vulnerability, perhaps as an included library or executable in the image. But the product provides sufficient security controls such that the vulnerability is not exposed to threat agents, which makes exploitation of the vulnerability very difficult to impossible. Use of the product presents no additional risk for customers.
- Vulnerable, but Low Risk—A product contains the vulnerability, perhaps as an included library or executable in the software image. But the impact from exploitation is negligible and provides no additional attacker value from exploitation. Use of the product likely presents little additional risk for customers who use the product in recommended and typical deployment scenarios.
Security Bulletins
Security Bulletins are available on our Knowledge Center.
View Security Bulletins.
Report a vulnerability
For information about how to report a vulnerability, see
KB95563 - Report a vulnerability.
