CVE-2020-14871
Vulnerability in the Oracle Solaris product of Oracle Systems (component: Pluggable authentication module). Supported versions that are…
- 10.0CriticalCVSS base score
- 80.2%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 0.4% of all CVEs
- YesKnown exploitedin CISA's KEV since 3 Nov 2021
- 4Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
Vulnerability in the Oracle Solaris product of Oracle Systems (component: Pluggable authentication module). Supported versions that are affected are 10 and 11. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows unauthenticated attacker with network access via multiple protocols to compromise Oracle Solaris. While the vulnerability is in Oracle Solaris, attacks may significantly impact additional products. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in takeover of Oracle Solaris. Note: This CVE is not exploitable for Solaris 11.1 and later releases, and ZFSSA 8.7 and later releases, thus the CVSS Base Score is 0.0. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 10.0 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).
Exploited in the wild
CISA lists this vulnerability in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog as Oracle Solaris and Zettabyte File System (ZFS) Unspecified Vulnerability.
- Added
- 3 Nov 2021
- Fix due (US federal)
- 3 May 2022
- Used by ransomware
- Not known
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
ENISA's EU Vulnerability Database lists it as exploited, from CISA's KEV, since 3 Nov 2021.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list a Metasploit module and 3 Exploit-DB entries for it. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: it is being exploited.
Show the exploits4
Metasploit modules1 module
- Oracle Solaris SunSSH PAM parse_user_name() Buffer Overflow (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
exploit/solaris/ssh/pam_username_bofRank normaldisclosed 20 Oct 2020
Exploit-DB3 entries
- Solaris SunSSH 11.0 x86 - libpam Remote Root (3) (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 50039remote, solarispublished 21 Jun 2021Not verified
- Solaris SunSSH 11.0 x86 - libpam Remote Root (2) (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 49896remote, solarispublished 21 May 2021Not verified
- Solaris SunSSH 11.0 x86 - libpam Remote Root (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 49261remote, solarispublished 15 Dec 2020Not verified
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By oracle
- 4 months later
· 4 months later
Published
- 13 months later
· 13 months later
Added to CISA KEV
Known exploited in the wild
- 4 years later
· 4 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| oracleCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Critical10.0 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 3.1 | Critical10.0 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 80.2% · top 0.4% of all CVEs (12 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Critical 10.0.
Affected products
Oracle Corporation · Solaris Operating System
- affected 10
- affected 11
References
References8
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2020.html (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/159961/SunSSH-Solaris-10-x86-Remote-Root.html (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/160510/Solaris-SunSSH-11.0-x86-libpam-Remote-Root.html (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/160609/Oracle-Solaris-SunSSH-PAM-parse_user_name-Buffer-Overflow.html (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- [oss-security] 20210302 Announce: OpenSSH 8.5 released (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_transferred
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/163232/Solaris-SunSSH-11.0-Remote-Root.html (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- [oss-security] 20240703 Re: CVE-2024-6387: RCE in OpenSSH's server, on glibc-based Linux systems (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_transferred
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-14871 (opens in a new tab)government-resource
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- CISA KEV catalog (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2020-7007 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2020-14871)Record last updated .