CVE-2020-9480In Apache Spark 2.4.5 and earlier, a standalone resource manager's master may be configured to require authentication (spark.authenticate)…
- 9.8CriticalCVSS base score
- 30.2%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 1.8% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 1Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
In Apache Spark 2.4.5 and earlier, a standalone resource manager's master may be configured to require authentication (spark.authenticate) via a shared secret. When enabled, however, a specially-crafted RPC to the master can succeed in starting an application's resources on the Spark cluster, even without the shared key. This can be leveraged to execute shell commands on the host machine. This does not affect Spark clusters using other resource managers (YARN, Mesos, etc).
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list a Nuclei template for it.
Show the exploits1
Nuclei templates1 template
- Apache Spark - Authentication Bypass (Nuclei template) (opens in a new tab)
http/cves/2020/CVE-2020-9480.yamlSeverity critical
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 apache
- 4 months later
· 4 months later
Published
- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | Critical9.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 30.2% · top 1.8% of all CVEs (14 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Critical 9.8.
Affected products
Apache Software Foundation · Apache Spark
- affected Apache Spark 2.4.5 and earlier
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- Mavenorg.apache.spark:spark-parent_2.11GHSA-wgx7-jwwm-cgjv (opens in a new tab)
- PyPIpysparkGHSA-wgx7-jwwm-cgjv (opens in a new tab)
References
References6
- https://spark.apache.org/security.html#CVE-2020-9480 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- [spark-user] 20200803 Re: CVE-2020-9480: Apache Spark RCE vulnerability in auth-enabled standalone master (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- [spark-dev] 20200803 Re: CVE-2020-9480: Apache Spark RCE vulnerability in auth-enabled standalone master (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- [submarine-commits] 20201209 [GitHub] [submarine] QiAnXinCodeSafe opened a new issue #475: There is a vulnerability in Apache Spark 2.3.4,upgrade recommended (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- [doris-commits] 20210402 [GitHub] [incubator-doris] zh0122 opened a new pull request #5593: [FE][Bug] Update Spark version to fix a security issue (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuApr2021.html (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
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)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2020-0158 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-wgx7-jwwm-cgjv (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-2020-9480)Record last updated .