CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2022-0166 — A privilege escalation vulnerability in the McAfee Agent prior to 5.7.5

High CVSS 7.8

A privilege escalation vulnerability in the McAfee Agent prior to 5.7.5. McAfee Agent uses openssl.cnf during the build process to specify the OPENSSLDIR variable as a subdirectory within the installation directory. A low privilege user could have created subdirectories and executed arbitrary code with SYSTEM privileges by creating the appropriate pathway to the specifically created malicious openssl.cnf file.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.8 (3.1)
Published
2022-01-19
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-427

Affected products

  • mcafee / agent

Matched remediation archetype

Supply-chain, dependency, build, and update integrity

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Trace affected packages, source archives, build actions, plugins, installers, and updates from declared source to deployed artifact.
  • Confirm provenance, signatures or digests, namespace ownership, lockfile resolution, registry configuration, and build-runner trust boundaries.
  • Inventory direct, transitive, vendored, generated, and bundled copies across releases and distribution channels.

Remediate safely

  • Move to a maintained trusted artifact or remove the dependency; pin immutable identities and verify provenance and integrity before use.
  • Regenerate lockfiles and artifacts in a clean isolated build, minimize build credentials and network access, and produce an updated software bill of materials.
  • Require reviewed update policy, protected publishing, and reproducible or independently attestable builds where supported.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

The detailed catalog view below loads this exact record, its source evidence, and the full seven-phase agentic change plan.