CVE-2020-17496

Exploitation

Exploited in the wild. Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-11-03. Federal remediation due 2022-05-03.

SSVC decision

• ExploitationactiveCISA reports credible evidence of active exploitation.
• AutomatableyesAn attacker can reliably automate reconnaissance through exploitation, so this scales.
• Technical ImpacttotalSuccessful exploitation gives total control of the vulnerable component.

CISA publishes the decision points, not a final SSVC decision. The decision also depends on mission and well-being impact, which is a property of your deployment rather than of the vulnerability.

EPSS probability

87.74% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days.

EPSS percentile

Ranks above 99.7% of scored records. A rank, not a probability.

NVD base score

9.8 (CVSS v3.x), scored by the NVD independently of the CNA.

NVD CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

NVD analysis status

Analyzed. NVD last modified this record on 2026-06-17.

Red Hat severity

No Red Hat rating. Red Hat rates the CVEs that affect its products.

Exploit-prediction scores from FIRST. Independent scoring and analysis status from the NVD. Vendor severity from Red Hat. Exploitation assessment and catalog membership from CISA.

Published

2020-08-12 13:07Z6 YR AGO

Last updated

2025-10-21 23:35Z10 MO AGO

Reserved

2020-08-12

Assigning CNA

mitre

Record state

PUBLISHED

Severity

Critical (CVSS 9.8)

CNA CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Weaknesses

• CWE-74Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component ('Injection')Class

Data version

5.1

Document digest

7213837ad7330c8a911effd0734fce1b7b1d3da7b3e44e31e912ea8c80a814f0

• cwe.mitre.orghttps://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/78.htmlx_refsource_MISC
• blog.exploitee.rshttps://blog.exploitee.rs/2020/exploiting-vbulletin-a-tale-of-patch-fail/x_refsource_MISC
• forum.vbulletin.comhttps://forum.vbulletin.com/forum/vbulletin-announcements/vbulletin-announcements_aa/4445227-vbulletin-5-6-0-5-6-1-5-6-2-security-patchx_refsource_MISC
• seclists.orghttps://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/Aug/5x_refsource_MISC
• www.cisa.govhttps://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-17496government-resource