McAfee Security Bulletin - McAfee Agent update fixes multiple low severity security issues in non-Windows versions (CVE-2018-6705, CVE-2018-6706, and CVE-2018-6707)
Security Bulletins ID:
SB10260
Last Modified: 12/15/2020
Last Modified: 12/15/2020
Summary
First Published: December 11, 2018
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Article contents:
This McAfee Agent release addresses multiple low severity issues in the Linux and Mac platforms.
This update resolves the following issues:
To remediate these issues, users of any McAfee Agent 5.5.1 and McAfee Agent 5.5.0 in non-Windows (Linux, MLOS, or Mac) product versions must upgrade to McAfee Agent 5.5.4 or 5.6.0.
Go to the Product Downloads site, and download the applicable product update file:
Download and Installation Instructions
See KB56057 for instructions on how to download McAfee products, documentation, updates, and hotfixes. Review the Release Notes and the Installation Guide, which you can download from the Documentation tab, for instructions on how to install these updates.
Workaround
None. McAfee highly recommends that all customers upgrade to McAfee Agent 5.5.4 or 5.6.0.
Acknowledgments
McAfee credits Brandon Vincent for discovery of these vulnerabilities.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do I know if my McAfee product is vulnerable or not?
Use the following instructions for endpoint or client-based products:
What is CVSS?
CVSS, or Common Vulnerability Scoring System, is the result of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council's effort to standardize a system of assessing the criticality of a vulnerability. This system offers an unbiased criticality score between 0 and 10 that customers can use to judge how critical a vulnerability is and plan accordingly. For more information, visit the CVSS website at: http://www.first.org/cvss/.
When calculating CVSS scores, McAfee has adopted a philosophy that fosters consistency and repeatability. Our guiding principle for CVSS scoring is to score the exploit under consideration by itself. We consider only the immediate and direct impact of the exploit under consideration. We do not factor into a score any potential follow-on exploits that might be made possible by the successful exploitation of the issue being scored.
What are the CVSS scoring metrics?
All Security Bulletins are published on our external PSIRT website at http://www.mcafee.com/us/threat-center/product-security-bulletins.aspx > Security Bulletins. Security Bulletins are retired (removed) once a product is both End of Sale and End of Support (End of Life).
How do I report a product vulnerability to McAfee?
If you have information about a security issue or vulnerability with a McAfee product, visit the McAfee PSIRT website for instructions at http://www.mcafee.com/us/threat-center/product-security-bulletins.aspx > Report a Security Vulnerability.
How does McAfee respond to this and any other reported security flaws?
Our key priority is the security of our customers. If a vulnerability is found within any McAfee software or services, we work closely with the relevant security software development team to ensure the rapid and effective development of a fix and communication plan.
McAfee only publishes Security Bulletins if they include something actionable such as a workaround, mitigation, version update, or hotfix. Otherwise, we would simply be informing the hacker community that our products are a target, putting our customers at greater risk. For products that are updated automatically, a non-actionable Security Bulletin might be published to acknowledge the discoverer.
View our PSIRT policy on the McAfee PSIRT website at http://www.mcafee.com/us/threat-center/product-security-bulletins.aspx > About PSIRT.
Resources
To contact Technical Support, log on to the ServicePortal and go to the Create a Service Request page at https://support.mcafee.com/ServicePortal/faces/serviceRequests/createSR:
The information provided in this Security Bulletin is provided as is without warranty of any kind. McAfee disclaims all warranties, either express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall McAfee or its suppliers be liable for any damages whatsoever including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, loss of business profits or special damages, even if McAfee or its suppliers have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages so the preceding limitation may not apply.
Any future product release dates mentioned in this Security Bulletin are intended to outline our general product direction, and they should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. The product release dates are for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. The product release dates are not a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functionality. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion and may be changed or canceled at any time.
| Impact of Vulnerability: | Insecure Temporary File (CWE-377) Creation of Temporary File With Insecure Permissions (CWE-378) |
| CVE ID: | CVE-2018-6705 CVE-2018-6706 CVE-2018-6707 |
| Severity Rating: | CVE-2018-6705: Low CVE-2018-6706: Low CVE-2018-6707: Low |
| CVSS v3 Base/Temporal Scores: | CVE-2018-6705: 2.3 / 2.2 CVE-2018-6706: 2.3 / 2.2 CVE-2018-6707: 3.7 / 3.5 |
| Recommendations: | Install or update to McAfee Agent 5.5.4 or 5.6.0 |
| Security Bulletin Replacement: | None |
| Affected Software: | McAfee Agent 5.5.1, 5.5.0 |
| Location of updated software: | http://www.mcafee.com/us/downloads/downloads.aspx |
To receive email notification when this Security Bulletin is updated, click Subscribe on the right side of the page. You must be logged in to subscribe.
Article contents:
- Vulnerability Description
- Remediation
- Workaround
- Acknowledgments
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Resources
- Disclaimer
This McAfee Agent release addresses multiple low severity issues in the Linux and Mac platforms.
This update resolves the following issues:
- CVE-2018-6705: Privilege escalation vulnerability
Privilege escalation vulnerability in McAfee Agent (MA) for Linux 5.0.0 through 5.0.6, 5.5.0, and 5.5.1 allows local users to perform arbitrary command execution via specific conditions.
http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2018-6705
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2018-6705
- CVE-2018-6706: Incorrect use of temporary files
Insecure handling of temporary files in non-Windows McAfee Agent 5.0.0 through 5.0.6, 5.5.0, and 5.5.1 allows an Unprivileged User to introduce custom paths during agent installation in Linux via unspecified vectors.
http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2018-6706
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2018-6706
- CVE-2018-6707: Insecure usage of temporary files
Denial of Service through Resource Depletion vulnerability in the agent in non-Windows McAfee Agent (MA) 5.0.0 through 5.0.6, 5.5.0, and 5.5.1 allows local users to cause DoS, unexpected behavior, or potentially unauthorized code execution via knowledge of the internal trust mechanism.
http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2018-6707
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2018-6707
To remediate these issues, users of any McAfee Agent 5.5.1 and McAfee Agent 5.5.0 in non-Windows (Linux, MLOS, or Mac) product versions must upgrade to McAfee Agent 5.5.4 or 5.6.0.
Go to the Product Downloads site, and download the applicable product update file:
| Product | Version | Type | File Name | Release Date |
| McAfee Agent | 5.6.0 | Minor Version Release | MA560MAC.zip MA560LNX.zip |
December 11, 2018 |
| McAfee Agent | 5.5.4 | Update | MA554MAC.zip MA554LNX.zip |
March 10, 2020 |
Download and Installation Instructions
See KB56057 for instructions on how to download McAfee products, documentation, updates, and hotfixes. Review the Release Notes and the Installation Guide, which you can download from the Documentation tab, for instructions on how to install these updates.
Workaround
None. McAfee highly recommends that all customers upgrade to McAfee Agent 5.5.4 or 5.6.0.
Acknowledgments
McAfee credits Brandon Vincent for discovery of these vulnerabilities.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do I know if my McAfee product is vulnerable or not?
Use the following instructions for endpoint or client-based products:
- Open a terminal.
- Enter the following command:
/opt/McAfee/agent/bin/cmdagent -i (for Linux)/Library/McAfee/agent/bin/cmdagent -i (for Mac)C:\Program Files\McAfee\Agent\cmdagent -i (for Windows)
What is CVSS?
CVSS, or Common Vulnerability Scoring System, is the result of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council's effort to standardize a system of assessing the criticality of a vulnerability. This system offers an unbiased criticality score between 0 and 10 that customers can use to judge how critical a vulnerability is and plan accordingly. For more information, visit the CVSS website at: http://www.first.org/cvss/.
When calculating CVSS scores, McAfee has adopted a philosophy that fosters consistency and repeatability. Our guiding principle for CVSS scoring is to score the exploit under consideration by itself. We consider only the immediate and direct impact of the exploit under consideration. We do not factor into a score any potential follow-on exploits that might be made possible by the successful exploitation of the issue being scored.
What are the CVSS scoring metrics?
- CVE-2018-6705: Privilege escalation vulnerability
Base Score 2.3 Attack Vector (AV) Local (L) Attack Complexity (AC) High (H) Privileges Required (PR) High (H) User Interaction (UI) Required (R) Scope (S) Changed (C) Confidentiality (C) None (N) Integrity (I) None (N) Availability (A) Low (L) Temporal Score (Overall) 2.2 Exploitability (E) Functional (F) Remediation Level (RL) Official Fix (O) Report Confidence (RC) Confirmed (C)
NOTE: The below CVSS version 3.0 vector was used to generate this score.
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln-metrics/cvss/v3-calculator?vector=AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:L/E:F/RL:O/RC:C
- CVE-2018-6706: Incorrect use of temporary files
Base Score 2.3 Attack Vector (AV) Local (L) Attack Complexity (AC) High (H) Privileges Required (PR) High (H) User Interaction (UI) Required (R) Scope (S) Changed (C) Confidentiality (C) None (N) Integrity (I) Low (L) Availability (A) None (N) Temporal Score (Overall) 2.2 Exploitability (E) Functional (F) Remediation Level (RL) Official Fix (O) Report Confidence (RC) Confirmed (C)
NOTE: The below CVSS version 3.0 vector was used to generate this score.
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln-metrics/cvss/v3-calculator?vector=AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N/E:F/RL:O/RC:C
- CVE-2018-6707: Insecure usage of temporary files
Base Score 3.7 Attack Vector (AV) Local (L) Attack Complexity (AC) High (H) Privileges Required (PR) High (H) User Interaction (UI) Required (R) Scope (S) Changed (C) Confidentiality (C) Low (L) Integrity (I) None (N) Availability (A) Low (L) Temporal Score (Overall) 3.5 Exploitability (E) Functional (F) Remediation Level (RL) Official Fix (O) Report Confidence (RC) Confirmed (C)
NOTE: The below CVSS version 3.0 vector was used to generate this score:
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln-metrics/cvss/v3-calculator?vector=AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:N/A:L/E:F/RL:O/RC:C
All Security Bulletins are published on our external PSIRT website at http://www.mcafee.com/us/threat-center/product-security-bulletins.aspx > Security Bulletins. Security Bulletins are retired (removed) once a product is both End of Sale and End of Support (End of Life).
How do I report a product vulnerability to McAfee?
If you have information about a security issue or vulnerability with a McAfee product, visit the McAfee PSIRT website for instructions at http://www.mcafee.com/us/threat-center/product-security-bulletins.aspx > Report a Security Vulnerability.
How does McAfee respond to this and any other reported security flaws?
Our key priority is the security of our customers. If a vulnerability is found within any McAfee software or services, we work closely with the relevant security software development team to ensure the rapid and effective development of a fix and communication plan.
McAfee only publishes Security Bulletins if they include something actionable such as a workaround, mitigation, version update, or hotfix. Otherwise, we would simply be informing the hacker community that our products are a target, putting our customers at greater risk. For products that are updated automatically, a non-actionable Security Bulletin might be published to acknowledge the discoverer.
View our PSIRT policy on the McAfee PSIRT website at http://www.mcafee.com/us/threat-center/product-security-bulletins.aspx > About PSIRT.
Resources
To contact Technical Support, log on to the ServicePortal and go to the Create a Service Request page at https://support.mcafee.com/ServicePortal/faces/serviceRequests/createSR:
- If you are a registered user, type your User ID and Password, and then click Log In.
- If you are not a registered user, click Register and complete the required fields. Your password and logon instructions will be emailed to you.
The information provided in this Security Bulletin is provided as is without warranty of any kind. McAfee disclaims all warranties, either express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall McAfee or its suppliers be liable for any damages whatsoever including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, loss of business profits or special damages, even if McAfee or its suppliers have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages so the preceding limitation may not apply.
Any future product release dates mentioned in this Security Bulletin are intended to outline our general product direction, and they should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. The product release dates are for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. The product release dates are not a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functionality. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion and may be changed or canceled at any time.
