CVE-2020-9488

LOWNVD 3.73.7—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

This low-severity CVE scores 3.7 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 0.0%, top 91% of all CVEs by exploit prediction. GitHub Security Advisory data not yet ingested — confidence will rise once GHSA publishes (typical lag: hours to days for open-source ecosystem CVEs; never for infrastructure-only CVEs).

Triggered by: NVD CVSS baseline
Sources: epss, nvd
3.7
EchelonGraph verdictMonitorLow exploitation likelihood right now — keep watching.
  • Lower severity and no public exploit yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS: 8%CVSS: 3.7Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

Improper validation of certificate with host mismatch in Apache Log4j SMTP appender. This could allow an SMTPS connection to be intercepted by a man-in-the-middle attack which could leak any log messages sent through that appender. Fixed in Apache Log4j 2.12.3 and 2.13.1

CVSS v3
3.7
EG Score
3.7(medium)
EPSS
94.1%
KEV
Not listed

Published

April 27, 2020

Last Modified

May 29, 2026

References (98)

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2020-9488(11)

These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.

Patch Availability(5)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
redhatpatch2022-02-10redhat
redhatpatch2022-02-09redhat
redhatlog4j-core2021-12-14redhat
redhatlog4j2020-12-16redhat
redhatqpid-proton-0:0.32.0-2.el82020-09-23redhat

Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.

Affected Packages

(2 across 1 ecosystem)
Maven(2)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j2.0 ... 2.3.1 (20 versions)2.3.2—
org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core2.0 ... 2.3.1 (20 versions)2.3.2—

Weakness Classification(1)

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

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 9× in last 7d / 46× 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.

  1. 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-07-09 19:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-08 15:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-07-07 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-07-06 02:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-07-06 02:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-07-05 02:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-07-05 02:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-07-02 16:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-07-01 23:01 UTCOSV refresh
  14. 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-06-29 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-06-28 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 55 more
  1. 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-06-21 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-06-21 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-06-19 19:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-06-19 19:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-06-18 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-06-17 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-06-15 17:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-06-14 23:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-06-14 03:43 UTCOSV refresh
  18. 2026-06-13 22:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-13 22:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-12 23:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-12 23:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-11 13:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-06-11 13:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-10 22:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-06-10 13:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-06-08 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-06-06 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  33. 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  34. 2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  35. 2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  36. 2026-06-04 13:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  37. 2026-06-04 13:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  38. 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  39. 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-06-01 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  42. 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  43. 2026-05-31 00:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  44. 2026-05-31 00:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-05-29 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  47. 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  48. 2026-05-27 13:39 UTCEPSS rescore
  49. 2026-05-27 13:39 UTCEPSS rescore
  50. 2026-05-27 04:13 UTCEG score recompute
  51. 2026-05-27 04:13 UTCVendor advisory
  52. 2026-05-26 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  53. 2026-05-26 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  54. 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  55. 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore

Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2020-9488?
CVE-2020-9488 is a low vulnerability published on April 27, 2020. Improper validation of certificate with host mismatch in Apache Log4j SMTP appender. This could allow an SMTPS connection to be intercepted by a man-in-the-middle attack which could leak any log messages sent through that appender. Fixed in Apache Log4j 2.12.3 and 2.13.1
When was CVE-2020-9488 disclosed?
CVE-2020-9488 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on April 27, 2020, with the most recent update on May 29, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2020-9488 actively exploited?
CVE-2020-9488 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 94.1% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-9488?
CVE-2020-9488 has a CVSS v3 base score of 3.7 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2020-9488?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2020-9488, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2020-9488

Explore →

Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2020-9488?

EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.

Start Free Scan →Browse All CVEs