Security Bulletin - McAfee Agent update fixes a Use After Free vulnerability in the remote logging feature (CVE-2018-6703)
Security Bulletins ID:
SB10258
Last Modified: 2022-05-04 15:32:19 Etc/GMT
Last Modified: 2022-05-04 15:32:19 Etc/GMT
Summary
First Published: December 11, 2018
Article contents:
This vulnerability affects McAfee Agent only when Enable remote access to log is selected in the McAfee Agent General policy. This option is disabled by default.
McAfee Agent offers the ability for the ePO administrator to enable remote logging on the targeted endpoints to aid troubleshooting. McAfee strongly recommends that remote logging is enabled only as required, and then returned to the disabled state.
When enabled, specially crafted HTTP headers might result in an attacker being able to execute their code through the McAfee Agent.
We previously published this security bulletin with a score of 4.3 because we believed that it was only possible to crash the service, which would then restart automatically. Subsequent internal investigation revealed there is a possibility of an attacker creating a Remote Code Execution (RCE) exploit. Our internal investigation stopped when we realized it was theoretically possible and we backported this fix from 5.6.0 to 5.5.1 and 5.0.6.
NOTE: NIST reviewed our initial publication, and based on the information we made public, scored it as a 9.8.
CVE-2018-6703: Use After Free vulnerability in the remote logging functionality within McAfee Agent
Use After Free in remote logging (which is disabled by default) in McAfee Agent (MA) 5.x earlier than 5.6.0 allows remote unauthenticated attackers to cause a Denial of Service and potentially a remote code execution via a specially crafted HTTP header sent to the remote logging service.
http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2018-6703
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2018-6703
Affected Component:
McAfee Agent with remote logging enabled in the following versions:
To remediate this issue:
For products that include an affected version of McAfee Agent for MLOS in their image, see the table below for the remediated version of the product:
1 For TIE Server upgrades, McAfee Agent is not updated. For fresh installations, the updated version of McAfee Agent is included. The McAfee Agent for MLOS package is available on the Product Downloads site. The package is available under the TIE 2.3.0 section for both 2.2.0 HF1 and 2.3.0 installations – McAfee Agent for MLOS Version 5.5.1.462. See KB85586 for instructions on how to update McAfee Agent through ePO.
2 For MAR Server upgrades, McAfee Agent is not updated. For fresh installations, the updated version of McAfee Agent is included. The McAfee Agent for MLOS package is available on the Product Downloads site. The package is available under the MAR 2.x section – McAfee Agent for MLOS Version 5.5.1.462. See KB85586 for instructions on how to update McAfee Agent through ePO.
Download and Installation Instructions
For instructions to download product updates and hotfixes, see KB56057 - How to download Enterprise product updates and documentation. Review the Release Notes and the Installation Guide for instructions on how to install these updates. All documentation is available on the Product Documentation site.
Workaround
You are not vulnerable if the Enable remote access to log policy option is not enabled. This option is disabled by default.
You can check the status and disable the functionality through the ePO console:
We recommend that you only enable this feature when troubleshooting and then disable it when you are finished.
Mitigations
By default, McAfee Agent is configured to only accept connections from the ePO server and agent handlers.
You can check this configuration through the ePO console:
We credit Frank Cozijnsen of the KPN RED-team for reporting this flaw.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do I know if my product is vulnerable?
For Endpoint products:
Use the following instructions for endpoint or client-based products:
Use the following instructions for endpoint or client-based products:
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, we've 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-2018-6703: Use After Free vulnerability in the remote logging functionality within McAfee Agent
NOTE: The below CVSS version 3.0 vector was used to generate this score.
https://www.first.org/cvss/calculator/3.0#CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C
Where can I find a list of all Security Bulletins?
All Security Bulletins are published on our Knowledge Center. 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 you?
If you have information about a security issue or vulnerability with a product, follow the instructions provided in KB95563 - Report a vulnerability.
How do you 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 of our 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.
We only publish 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.
To view our PSIRT policy, see KB95564 - About PSIRT.
Resources
Disclaimer
The information provided in this Security Bulletin is provided as is without warranty of any kind. We disclaim all warranties, either express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall we or our suppliers be liable for any damages whatsoever including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, loss of business profits, or special damages, even if we or our suppliers have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states don't 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 shouldn't 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 aren't 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 remain at our sole discretion and may be changed or canceled at any time.
| Impact of Vulnerability: | Use After Free (CWE-416) |
| CVE ID: | CVE-2018-6703 |
| Severity Rating: | Critical |
| CVSS v3 Base/Temporal Scores: | 9.8 / 8.8 |
| Recommendations: | Install or update to one of the following McAfee Agent versions:
|
| Security Bulletin Replacement: | None |
| Affected Software: | McAfee Agent versions:
|
| Location of updated software: | Product Downloads site |
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Article contents:
- Vulnerability Description
- Remediation
- Workaround
- Mitigations
- Acknowledgments
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Resources
- Disclaimer
This vulnerability affects McAfee Agent only when Enable remote access to log is selected in the McAfee Agent General policy. This option is disabled by default.
McAfee Agent offers the ability for the ePO administrator to enable remote logging on the targeted endpoints to aid troubleshooting. McAfee strongly recommends that remote logging is enabled only as required, and then returned to the disabled state.
When enabled, specially crafted HTTP headers might result in an attacker being able to execute their code through the McAfee Agent.
We previously published this security bulletin with a score of 4.3 because we believed that it was only possible to crash the service, which would then restart automatically. Subsequent internal investigation revealed there is a possibility of an attacker creating a Remote Code Execution (RCE) exploit. Our internal investigation stopped when we realized it was theoretically possible and we backported this fix from 5.6.0 to 5.5.1 and 5.0.6.
NOTE: NIST reviewed our initial publication, and based on the information we made public, scored it as a 9.8.
CVE-2018-6703: Use After Free vulnerability in the remote logging functionality within McAfee Agent
Use After Free in remote logging (which is disabled by default) in McAfee Agent (MA) 5.x earlier than 5.6.0 allows remote unauthenticated attackers to cause a Denial of Service and potentially a remote code execution via a specially crafted HTTP header sent to the remote logging service.
http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2018-6703
http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2018-6703
Affected Component:
McAfee Agent with remote logging enabled in the following versions:
- 5.0.x
- 5.5.x
To remediate this issue:
- Upgrade McAfee Agent 5.5.1 or earlier to McAfee Agent 5.5.1 HF1267991, or McAfee Agent 5.6.0 (GA).
- Upgrade McAfee Agent 5.0.6 and earlier to McAfee Agent 5.0.6 HF1267994, McAfee Agent 5.5.1 HF1267991, or McAfee Agent 5.6.0 (GA).
- See the second table below if you use an appliance that consumes the McAfee Agent for McAfee Linux Operating System (MLOS).
| Product | Version | Type | File Name | Release Date |
| McAfee Agent | 5.6.0 | Minor | MA560WIN.zip MA560MAC.zip MA560LNX.zip MA560WIN_EMBEDDED.zip |
December 11, 2018 |
| McAfee Agent | 5.5.1 HF1267991 | Hotfix | MA551HF1267991LNX.zip MA551HF1267991MAC.zip MA551HF1267991WIN.zip MA551HF1267991WIN_EMBEDDED.zip |
March 21, 2019 |
| McAfee Agent | 5.0.6 HF1267994 | Hotfix | MA506HF1267994LNX.zip MA506HF1267994MAC.zip MA506HF1267994WIN.zip MA506HF1267994WIN_EMBEDDED.zip |
March 21, 2019 |
For products that include an affected version of McAfee Agent for MLOS in their image, see the table below for the remediated version of the product:
| Product | Version | Type | File Name | Release Date |
| Data Exchange Layer (DXL) Broker | 4.0.x 4.1.x 5.0.x |
Hotfix | DXL Platform 5.0.1 Hotfix 2 | April 9, 2019 |
| DXL Broker | 4.0.x 4.1.x |
Hotfix | DXL Platform 4.1.2 Hotfix 3 | April 9, 2019 |
| DXL Broker | 4.0.x | Hotfix | DXL Platform 4.0.0 Hotfix 9 | May 7, 2019 |
| Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Monitor/Prevent | 11.x 10.x |
Minor | DLP Monitor/Prevent 11.3.0 | July 23, 2019 |
| DLP Monitor/Prevent | 11.1.x 11.0.x 10.x |
Update | DLP Monitor/Prevent 11.1.200 | July 23, 2019 |
| DLP Monitor/Prevent | 11.0.x | Hotfix | DLP Monitor/Prevent 11.0.701 | July 23, 2019 |
| DLP Prevent | 10.x | Hotfix | DLP Prevent 10.0.303 | July 23, 2019 |
| McAfee Active Response (MAR) Server | 2.2.x 2.3.x |
Update | MAR 2.4.02 | September 11, 2018 |
| Threat Intelligence Exchange (TIE) Server | 2.0.x 2.1.x 2.2.x 2.3.x |
Hotfix | TIE Server 2.3.1 Hotfix 11 | April 9, 2019 |
| TIE Server | 2.0.x 2.1.x 2.2.x |
Hotfix | TIE Server 2.2.0 Hotfix 11 | April 23, 2019 |
1 For TIE Server upgrades, McAfee Agent is not updated. For fresh installations, the updated version of McAfee Agent is included. The McAfee Agent for MLOS package is available on the Product Downloads site. The package is available under the TIE 2.3.0 section for both 2.2.0 HF1 and 2.3.0 installations – McAfee Agent for MLOS Version 5.5.1.462. See KB85586 for instructions on how to update McAfee Agent through ePO.
2 For MAR Server upgrades, McAfee Agent is not updated. For fresh installations, the updated version of McAfee Agent is included. The McAfee Agent for MLOS package is available on the Product Downloads site. The package is available under the MAR 2.x section – McAfee Agent for MLOS Version 5.5.1.462. See KB85586 for instructions on how to update McAfee Agent through ePO.
Download and Installation Instructions
For instructions to download product updates and hotfixes, see KB56057 - How to download Enterprise product updates and documentation. Review the Release Notes and the Installation Guide for instructions on how to install these updates. All documentation is available on the Product Documentation site.
Workaround
You are not vulnerable if the Enable remote access to log policy option is not enabled. This option is disabled by default.
You can check the status and disable the functionality through the ePO console:
- Go to the assigned policy type General for the product McAfee Agent.
- Go to the Logging tab.
- Disable Enable remote access to log.
We recommend that you only enable this feature when troubleshooting and then disable it when you are finished.
Mitigations
By default, McAfee Agent is configured to only accept connections from the ePO server and agent handlers.
You can check this configuration through the ePO console:
- Go to the assigned policy type General for the product McAfee Agent.
- Go to the General tab.
- Enable Accept connections only from the ePO server.
We credit Frank Cozijnsen of the KPN RED-team for reporting this flaw.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do I know if my product is vulnerable?
For Endpoint products:
Use the following instructions for endpoint or client-based products:
- Right-click on the McAfee tray shield icon on the Windows taskbar.
- Select Open Console.
- In the console, select Action Menu.
- In the Action Menu, select Product Details. The product version displays.
Use the following instructions for endpoint or client-based products:
- Open a terminal.
- Enter the following command:
- For Linux: /opt/McAfee/agent/bin/cmdagent -i
- For Mac: /Library/McAfee/agent/bin/cmdagent -i
- For Windows: C:\Program Files\McAfee\Agent\cmdagent -i
The product version displays in the output.
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, we've 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-2018-6703: Use After Free vulnerability in the remote logging functionality within McAfee Agent
| Base Score | 9.8 |
| Attack Vector (AV) | Network (N) |
| Attack Complexity (AC) | Low (L) |
| Privileges Required (PR) | None (N) |
| User Interaction (UI) | None (N) |
| Scope (S) | Unchanged (U) |
| Confidentiality (C) | High (H) |
| Integrity (I) | High (H) |
| Availability (A) | High (H) |
| Temporal Score (Overall) | 8.8 |
| Exploitability (E) | Proof-of-Concept (P) |
| 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://www.first.org/cvss/calculator/3.0#CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C
Where can I find a list of all Security Bulletins?
All Security Bulletins are published on our Knowledge Center. 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 you?
If you have information about a security issue or vulnerability with a product, follow the instructions provided in KB95563 - Report a vulnerability.
How do you 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 of our 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.
We only publish 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.
To view our PSIRT policy, see KB95564 - About PSIRT.
Resources
To contact Technical Support, go to the Create a Service Request page and log on to the ServicePortal.
- 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 fields to have your password and instructions emailed to you.
Disclaimer
The information provided in this Security Bulletin is provided as is without warranty of any kind. We disclaim all warranties, either express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall we or our suppliers be liable for any damages whatsoever including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, loss of business profits, or special damages, even if we or our suppliers have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states don't 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 shouldn't 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 aren't 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 remain at our sole discretion and may be changed or canceled at any time.
