CVE-2020-14871
Memory Safety in Oracle Solaris 10 – 11.1
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2020-14871 is a critical-severity Out-of-bounds Write (CWE-787) vulnerability in Oracle Solaris. Its CVSS base score is 10.0 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Security Account Manager (T1003.002); ranked in the top 0.4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2020-14871 is a buffer overflow vulnerability (CWE-787) in the Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) component of Oracle Solaris, specifically affecting supported versions 10 and 11. The flaw resides in PAM's handling of authentication data and carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 10.0 due to its network-accessible, unauthenticated nature and impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability with changed scope.
An unauthenticated attacker with network access via multiple protocols can exploit the issue to achieve remote takeover of an Oracle Solaris system. While the vulnerability is present in Solaris, successful exploitation can also affect additional products that rely on the affected component. The provided description explicitly states that the issue is not exploitable on Solaris 11.1 and later or ZFSSA 8.7 and later, resulting in a CVSS score of 0.0 for those releases.
Public exploit code demonstrating remote root access against SunSSH on Solaris 10 and 11.0 has been published, confirming practical remote code execution paths through the PAM parse_user_name function. Mitigation requires upgrading to a non-affected release as noted in the vulnerability description.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2020-7007
Vulnerability Data
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…
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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).
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 03 November 2021
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Out-of-bounds writes that corrupt control flow or inject shellcode are rendered non-executable by the same memory protections.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover out-of-bounds write flaws so they can be remediated.
Patching or replacing vulnerable software directly eliminates known instances of this coding weakness.
Secure-development practices (static analysis, bounds checking, code review) are the primary means of preventing out-of-bounds writes.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.