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Fencer Vulns
high 8.8

CVE-2020-7266 json

Privilege Escalation vulnerability through symbolic links in VSE for Windows

published 2020-05-08 6 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2020-28393

cvss
8.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 17%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Privilege Escalation vulnerability in McAfee VirusScan Enterprise (VSE) for Windows prior to 8.8 Patch 14 Hotfix 116778 allows local users to delete files the user would otherwise not have access to via manipulating symbolic links to redirect a McAfee delete action to an unintended file. This is achieved through running a malicious script or program on the target machine.

Patch / fix

  • McAfee,LLC McAfee VirusScan Enterprise (VSE) for Windows 8.8 Patch 14 Hotfix 116778

Exploit prediction

0.26% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 17% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 8.4 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 3.6 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P

Affected products

  • McAfee,LLC McAfee VirusScan Enterprise (VSE) for Windows

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-274 Improper Handling of Insufficient Privileges
  • CWE-269 Improper Privilege Management

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.