CVE-2020-11093 | Authorization bypass in Hyperledger Indy

Exp

Hyperledger Indy Node is the server portion of a distributed ledger purpose-built for decentralized identity. In Hyperledger Indy before version 1.12.4, there is lack of signature verification on a specific transaction which enables an attacker to make certain unauthorized alterations to the ledger. Updating a DID with a nym transaction will be written to the ledger if neither ROLE or VERKEY are being changed, regardless of sender. A malicious DID with no particular role can ask an update for another DID (but cannot modify its verkey or role). This is bad because 1) Any DID can write a nym transaction to the ledger (i.e., any DID can spam the ledger with nym transactions), 2) Any DID can change any other DID's alias, 3) The update transaction modifies the ledger metadata associated with a DID.

Published: 2020-12-24 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2020-11093 is rated High Exploit Risk (65.3/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.93%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2020-11093

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-11093

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.16% 0.93% +0.77%
2 2025-03-30 0.14% 0.16% +0.02%
3 2025-03-29 0.14%

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-11093

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
3.9 3.6 [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-11093

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2020-11093

GHSA-wh2w-39f4-rpv2 · Severity: high · Ecosystem: pip — Hyperledger Indy's update process of a DID does not check who signs the request

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-11093

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linuxfoundation indy-node < 1.12.4 cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:indy-node:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-11093

cvelogic Threat Intelligence