CVE-2017-3897

published 2017-09-01

CVE-2017-3897: A Code Injection vulnerability in the non-certificate-based authentication mechanism in McAfee Live Safe versions prior to 16.0.3 and McAfee Security Scan Plus…

Priority P2 70 critical 9.8 CVSS 3.0

AV N AC L PR N UI N S U C H I H A H

EXPLOIT

A Code Injection vulnerability in the non-certificate-based authentication mechanism in McAfee Live Safe versions prior to 16.0.3 and McAfee Security Scan Plus (MSS+) versions prior to 3.11.599.3 allows network attackers to perform a malicious file execution via a HTTP backend-response.

Affected

4 ranges

Vendor	Product	Version range	Fixed in
mcafee	live_safe	—	—
mcafee	livesafe	<= 16.0.2	—
mcafee	security_scan_plus	<= 3.11.599.2	—
mcafee	security_scan_plus	—	—

Detection & IOCs extracted from sources · hover to see the quote

command window.external.LaunchApplication("c:\\windows\\system32\\calc.exe", "");↗

filename MCBRWSR2.DLL↗

• → Detect HTTP (plaintext, non-HTTPS) requests from the McAfee Security Scan Plus process to mcafee.com domains, particularly requests that receive a 200 OK response where a 302 redirect to HTTPS is expected. ↗
• → Alert on JavaScript payloads in HTTP responses containing the string 'LaunchApplication' targeting mcafee.com-hosted resources, as this is the injected API call used for arbitrary command execution. ↗
• → The exploit triggers on every scan initiation; by default the product performs weekly scans. Monitor for periodic plaintext HTTP requests to home.mcafee.com/SecurityScanner/SSBanner.aspx as a trigger point. ↗

• · The attack requires an active network MITM position; it is not remotely exploitable without the ability to intercept and modify plaintext HTTP traffic between the victim and mcafee.com. ↗
• · Exploitation is limited to executing files already residing on the target system with the privileges of the currently logged-in user; it does not by itself provide privilege escalation. ↗

CVSS provenance

nvd v3.0 9.8 CRITICAL CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvd v2.0 7.5 HIGH AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

CVEs like this are exactly what “Exploited This Week” covers.

Every Monday: what got weaponized or added to CISA KEV in the last seven days — each CVE cross-linked to its PoC, Nuclei template, and detection rule. Free, one email a week, unsubscribe in one click.

CWE-94