CVE-2020-7310 | Privilege Escalation vulnerability in McAfee Total Protection (MTP) trial installer

Privilege Escalation vulnerability in the installer in McAfee McAfee Total Protection (MTP) trial prior to 4.0.161.1 allows local users to change files that are part of write protection rules via manipulating symbolic links to redirect a McAfee file operations to an unintended file.

Published: 2020-08-21 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2020-7310 is rated Low Risk (35.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.29%). 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-2020-7310

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 0.04% 0.29% +0.25%
2 2025-06-02 0.10% 0.04% -0.06%
3 2025-03-17 0.10%

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-7310

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.9 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
0.6 5.8 [email protected]
6.9 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
0.6 5.8 [email protected]
3.3 2.0 LOW
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
3.4 4.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-7310

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-7310

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
mcafee total_protection < 4.0.161.1 cpe:2.3:a:mcafee:total_protection:*:*:*:*:trial:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-7310

cvelogic Threat Intelligence