CVE-2020-7296 | Web Gateway (MWG) - Privilege Escalation vulnerability

Privilege Escalation vulnerability in McAfee Web Gateway (MWG) prior to 9.2.1 allows authenticated user interface user to access protected configuration files via improper access control in the user interface.

Published: 2020-09-15 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2020-7296 is rated Low Risk (35.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.43%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-7296

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.09% 0.43% +0.34%
2 2025-03-17 0.04% 0.09% +0.04%
3 2023-03-07 0.04%

Full EPSS history (7 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-7296

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.7 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:A)
Attacker has to be nearby on the network—same office, same link, that vibe—not the whole wide internet.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.1 3.6 [email protected]
5.7 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:A)
Attacker has to be nearby on the network—same office, same link, that vibe—not the whole wide internet.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.1 3.6 [email protected]
2.7 2.0 LOW
AV:A/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:A)
Requires access to an adjacent network segment.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
5.1 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-7296

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-7296

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
mcafee web_gateway >= 7.8.0, < 7.8.2.23 cpe:2.3:a:mcafee:web_gateway:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
mcafee web_gateway >= 8.2.0, < 8.2.11 cpe:2.3:a:mcafee:web_gateway:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
mcafee web_gateway >= 9.0.0, < 9.2.3 cpe:2.3:a:mcafee:web_gateway:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-7296

cvelogic Threat Intelligence