CVE-2020-36167

moderate-risk
Published 2021-01-06

An issue was discovered in the server in Veritas Backup Exec through 16.2, 20.6 before hotfix 298543, and 21.1 before hotfix 657517. On start-up, it loads the OpenSSL library from the Installation folder. This library in turn attempts to load the /usr/local/ssl/openssl.cnf configuration file, which may not exist. On Windows systems, this path could translate to <drive>:\usr\local\ssl\openssl.cnf. A low privileged user can create a :\usr\local\ssl\openssl.cnf configuration file to load a malicious OpenSSL engine, resulting in arbitrary code execution as SYSTEM when the service starts. This gives the attacker administrator access on the system, allowing the attacker (by default) to access all data, access all installed applications, etc. If the system is also an Active Directory domain controller, then this can affect the entire domain.

Do I need to act?

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0.05% chance of exploitation
EPSS score — low exploit probability
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Not on CISA KEV list
No confirmed active exploitation reported to CISA
?
Patch status unknown
Check vendor advisories for fix availability and mitigation guidance
9
CVSS 9.3/10 Critical
LOCAL / LOW complexity

Affected Products (1)

Affected Vendors

33
/ 100
moderate-risk
Severity 28/34 · Critical
Exploitability 0/34 · Minimal
Exposure 5/34 · Minimal