Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2016-5311


A Privilege Escalation vulnerability exists in Symantec Norton Antivirus, Norton AntiVirus with Backup, Norton Security, Norton Security with Backup, Norton Internet Security, Norton 360, Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition Cloud, and Endpoint Protection Cloud Client due to a DLL-preloading without path restrictions, which could let a local malicious user obtain system privileges.


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.8, requiring local system access to exploit with relatively low complexity though user interaction is required and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 9 products from symantec, from symantec, from symantec and 6 others, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2020, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.


Published

2020-01-09T20:15:11.163

Last Modified

2024-11-21T02:54:04.670

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 7.8 (HIGH)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

  • Access Vector: LOCAL
  • Access Complexity: MEDIUM
  • Authentication: NONE
  • Confidentiality Impact: COMPLETE
  • Integrity Impact: COMPLETE
  • Availability Impact: COMPLETE
Exploitability Score

3.4

Impact Score

10.0

Weaknesses
  • Type: Primary
    CWE-427

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application symantec endpoint_protection < 22.8.0.50 Yes
Application symantec endpoint_protection_cloud < 22.8.0.50 Yes
Application symantec norton_360 < 22.7 Yes
Application symantec norton_antivirus < 22.7 Yes
Application symantec norton_antivirus_with_backup < 22.7 Yes
Application symantec norton_family < 22.7 Yes
Application symantec norton_internet_security < 22.7 Yes
Application symantec norton_security < 22.7 Yes
Application symantec norton_security_with_backup < 22.7 Yes

References

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For symantec's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.