CVE-2020-14871

CRITICALNVD 10.010.0—
EchelonGraph scoreHIGH confidence

Score elevated to 10.0 because this CVE is listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03), indicating real-world exploitation has been confirmed by US federal agencies. NVD baseline CVSS 10.0 retained for reference. Confidence: HIGH.

Triggered by: CISA KEV (actively exploited)
Sources: cisa_kev, epss, ghsa, nvd
Trending — 3 sources updated this weekExploited in the wild
10.0EG
EchelonGraph verdictPatch nowTreat as an emergency — this is being exploited.
  • Actively exploited in the wild (CISA-KEV)
CISA-KEV: ExploitedEPSS PROB: 80%CVSS: 10.0Exploit: cisa kev · ssvc active · Metasploit · epss top5pct · epss high · public exploitExposed services: Not assessed

A fix is available — apply it.

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 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).

CVSS v3
10.0
EG Score
10.0CRITICALhigh confidence
EG Risk
85
EG Risk 85/100CISA SSVC

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity100% × 45%
Exploitation100% × 40%
Automatability0% × 15%
CISA SSVC: Track at low, Attend at medium and Act at high mission impact.
Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low, sooner than that at medium and as soon as possible at high mission impact.
EPSS PROB
80%
EPSS %ILE
99th
KEV
⚠ Exploited

CISA SSVCTrack at low, Attend at medium and Act at high mission impact.

A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low, sooner than that at medium and as soon as possible at high mission impact.

Exploitation active (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it: high means the affected system is essential to your organisation's mission, or its compromise could cause irreversible harm to people. CISA's decision table

Published

October 21, 2020

Last Modified

October 27, 2025

Advisory Details (6)

Auto-updated Oct 3, 2026
Patch available.
generic

Packet Storm

http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/160609/Oracle-Solaris-SunSSH-PAM-parse_user_name-Buffer-Overflow.html
generic

Packet Storm

http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/160510/Solaris-SunSSH-11.0-x86-libpam-Remote-Root.html
generic

Packet Storm

http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/159961/SunSSH-Solaris-10-x86-Remote-Root.html
generic

oss-security - Re: CVE-2024-6387: RCE in OpenSSH's server, on glibc-based Linux systems

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/07/03/3
generic

oss-security - Announce: OpenSSH 8.5 released

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/03/03/1
generic

Packet Storm

http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/163232/Solaris-SunSSH-11.0-Remote-Root.html

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 48× in last 7d / 231× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 960 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-10-05 18:10 UTCGHSA enrichment
  2. 2026-10-05 14:19 UTCGHSA enrichment
  3. 2026-10-05 10:28 UTCGHSA enrichment
  4. 2026-10-05 06:38 UTCGHSA enrichment
  5. 2026-10-05 02:46 UTCGHSA enrichment
  6. 2026-10-04 22:55 UTCGHSA enrichment
  7. 2026-10-04 19:04 UTCGHSA enrichment
  8. 2026-10-04 15:12 UTCGHSA enrichment
  9. 2026-10-04 11:19 UTCGHSA enrichment
  10. 2026-10-04 07:28 UTCGHSA enrichment
  11. 2026-10-04 03:37 UTCGHSA enrichment
  12. 2026-10-03 23:46 UTCGHSA enrichment
  13. 2026-10-03 19:54 UTCGHSA enrichment
  14. 2026-10-03 16:03 UTCEG score recompute
  15. 2026-10-03 16:03 UTCGHSA enrichment
  16. 2026-10-03 14:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-10-03 12:13 UTCGHSA enrichment
  18. 2026-10-03 08:21 UTCGHSA enrichment
  19. 2026-10-03 04:28 UTCGHSA enrichment
  20. 2026-10-03 00:37 UTCGHSA enrichment
  21. 2026-10-02 20:46 UTCGHSA enrichment
  22. 2026-10-02 16:54 UTCGHSA enrichment
  23. 2026-10-02 13:04 UTCGHSA enrichment
  24. 2026-10-02 09:13 UTCGHSA enrichment
  25. 2026-10-02 05:22 UTCGHSA enrichment
Show 75 more
  1. 2026-10-02 01:29 UTCGHSA enrichment
  2. 2026-10-01 21:38 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-10-01 21:38 UTCGHSA enrichment
  4. 2026-10-01 17:44 UTCGHSA enrichment
  5. 2026-10-01 13:53 UTCGHSA enrichment
  6. 2026-10-01 10:02 UTCGHSA enrichment
  7. 2026-10-01 06:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
  8. 2026-10-01 02:20 UTCGHSA enrichment
  9. 2026-09-30 22:29 UTCGHSA enrichment
  10. 2026-09-30 18:38 UTCGHSA enrichment
  11. 2026-09-30 14:47 UTCGHSA enrichment
  12. 2026-09-30 10:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
  13. 2026-09-30 07:03 UTCGHSA enrichment
  14. 2026-09-30 03:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
  15. 2026-09-29 23:20 UTCGHSA enrichment
  16. 2026-09-29 19:26 UTCGHSA enrichment
  17. 2026-09-29 15:35 UTCGHSA enrichment
  18. 2026-09-29 11:45 UTCGHSA enrichment
  19. 2026-09-29 07:51 UTCGHSA enrichment
  20. 2026-09-29 04:00 UTCGHSA enrichment
  21. 2026-09-29 00:09 UTCEG score recompute
  22. 2026-09-29 00:09 UTCGHSA enrichment
  23. 2026-09-28 20:18 UTCGHSA enrichment
  24. 2026-09-28 16:27 UTCGHSA enrichment
  25. 2026-09-28 12:36 UTCGHSA enrichment
  26. 2026-09-28 08:45 UTCGHSA enrichment
  27. 2026-09-28 04:54 UTCGHSA enrichment
  28. 2026-09-28 01:03 UTCGHSA enrichment
  29. 2026-09-27 21:51 UTCCISA KEV update
  30. 2026-09-27 21:12 UTCGHSA enrichment
  31. 2026-09-27 17:21 UTCGHSA enrichment
  32. 2026-09-27 13:30 UTCGHSA enrichment
  33. 2026-09-27 09:39 UTCGHSA enrichment
  34. 2026-09-27 05:48 UTCGHSA enrichment
  35. 2026-09-27 01:57 UTCGHSA enrichment
  36. 2026-09-26 22:06 UTCGHSA enrichment
  37. 2026-09-26 18:16 UTCEG score recompute
  38. 2026-09-26 18:16 UTCGHSA enrichment
  39. 2026-09-26 15:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-09-26 14:23 UTCGHSA enrichment
  41. 2026-09-26 10:29 UTCGHSA enrichment
  42. 2026-09-26 06:36 UTCGHSA enrichment
  43. 2026-09-26 02:43 UTCGHSA enrichment
  44. 2026-09-25 22:51 UTCGHSA enrichment
  45. 2026-09-25 19:35 UTCCISA KEV update
  46. 2026-09-25 19:00 UTCGHSA enrichment
  47. 2026-09-25 15:07 UTCGHSA enrichment
  48. 2026-09-25 14:55 UTCCISA KEV update
  49. 2026-09-25 11:16 UTCGHSA enrichment
  50. 2026-09-25 07:25 UTCGHSA enrichment
  51. 2026-09-25 03:34 UTCGHSA enrichment
  52. 2026-09-24 23:43 UTCGHSA enrichment
  53. 2026-09-24 19:52 UTCGHSA enrichment
  54. 2026-09-24 19:31 UTCCISA KEV update
  55. 2026-09-24 16:01 UTCEG score recompute
  56. 2026-09-24 16:01 UTCGHSA enrichment
  57. 2026-09-24 13:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  58. 2026-09-24 12:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
  59. 2026-09-24 08:20 UTCGHSA enrichment
  60. 2026-09-24 04:30 UTCGHSA enrichment
  61. 2026-09-24 00:38 UTCGHSA enrichment
  62. 2026-09-23 20:47 UTCGHSA enrichment
  63. 2026-09-23 16:57 UTCGHSA enrichment
  64. 2026-09-23 13:04 UTCGHSA enrichment
  65. 2026-09-23 09:13 UTCGHSA enrichment
  66. 2026-09-23 05:22 UTCGHSA enrichment
  67. 2026-09-23 01:32 UTCGHSA enrichment
  68. 2026-09-22 21:41 UTCGHSA enrichment
  69. 2026-09-22 19:36 UTCCISA KEV update
  70. 2026-09-22 17:50 UTCEG score recompute
  71. 2026-09-22 17:50 UTCGHSA enrichment
  72. 2026-09-22 14:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  73. 2026-09-22 13:59 UTCGHSA enrichment
  74. 2026-09-22 10:08 UTCGHSA enrichment
  75. 2026-09-22 06:17 UTCGHSA enrichment

Publicly available exploits

(5 references)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (1 Metasploit module) (1 GitHub PoC) (3 Exploit-DB entries). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

  • Metasploitexploit/solaris/ssh/pam_username_bof✓ verified
    First seen Oct 20, 2020

    Oracle Solaris SunSSH PAM parse_user_name() Buffer Overflow

    Open source ↗
  • GitHub PoCrobidev/CVE-2020-14871-Exploit
    First seen Dec 25, 2021

    This is a basic ROP based exploit for CVE 2020-14871. CVE 2020-14871 is a vulnerability in Sun Solaris systems libpam library, and exploitable over ssh

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-50039
    First seen Jun 21, 2021

    Solaris SunSSH 11.0 x86 - libpam Remote Root (3)

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-49896
    First seen May 21, 2021

    Solaris SunSSH 11.0 x86 - libpam Remote Root (2)

    Open source ↗
  • Exploit-DBEDB-49261
    First seen Dec 15, 2020

    Solaris SunSSH 11.0 x86 - libpam Remote Root

    Open source ↗

Related CVEs(same CWE)

Frequently asked(6)

What is CVE-2020-14871?
CVE-2020-14871 is a critical vulnerability published on October 21, 2020. 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.…
When was CVE-2020-14871 disclosed?
CVE-2020-14871 was first published on October 21, 2020, with the most recent update on October 27, 2025. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2020-14871 actively exploited?
Yes. CISA added CVE-2020-14871 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on November 3, 2021, affecting Oracle Solaris and Zettabyte File System (ZFS). KEV listing indicates confirmed exploitation in the wild; this CVE warrants immediate attention. A fix is available. Apply it.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-14871?
CVE-2020-14871 has a CVSS v3 base score of 10.0 (NVD).
Which products are affected by CVE-2020-14871?
CVE-2020-14871 affects Oracle Solaris and Zettabyte File System (ZFS).
How do I remediate CVE-2020-14871?
A fix for CVE-2020-14871 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory.

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