Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2020-15861

Net-SNMP through 5.7.3 allows Escalation of Privileges because of UNIX symbolic link (symlink) following.

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 without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 5 products from net-snmp, from canonical, from netapp and 2 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

2020-08-20T01:17:13.837

Last Modified

2025-12-03T19:15:51.413

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 7.8 (HIGH)

CVSSv2 Vector

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

Access Vector: LOCAL
Access Complexity: LOW
Authentication: NONE
Confidentiality Impact: COMPLETE
Integrity Impact: COMPLETE
Availability Impact: COMPLETE

Exploitability Score

3.9

Impact Score

10.0

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-59
Type: Secondary
CWE-59

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Application	net-snmp	net-snmp	≤ 5.7.3	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	12.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	14.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	16.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	18.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	20.04	Yes
Application	netapp	cloud_backup	-	Yes
Application	netapp	smi-s_provider	-	Yes
Application	netapp	solidfire_\&_hci_management_node	-	Yes

References

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=966599 Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://github.com/net-snmp/net-snmp/commit/4fd9a450444a434a993bc72f7c3486ccce41f602 Patch, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://github.com/net-snmp/net-snmp/issues/145 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202008-12 Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20200904-0001/ Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4471-1/ Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=966599 Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://github.com/net-snmp/net-snmp/commit/4fd9a450444a434a993bc72f7c3486ccce41f602 Patch, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://github.com/net-snmp/net-snmp/issues/145 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202008-12 Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20200904-0001/ Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4471-1/ Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

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 net-snmp'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.