CVE-2020-14009

Proofpoint Enterprise Protection (PPS/PoD) before 8.16.4 contains a vulnerability that could allow an attacker to deliver an email message with a malicious attachment that bypasses scanning and file-blocking rules. The vulnerability exists because messages with certain crafted and malformed multipart structures are not properly handled.

Published: 2021-05-07 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2020-14009 is rated Low Risk (37.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.09%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-14009

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 2023-03-07 0.89% 0.09% -0.80%
2 2022-04-01 2.56% 0.89% -1.68%
3 2022-02-04 2.56%

Full EPSS history (5 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-14009

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L 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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
2.8 3.4 [email protected]
6.8 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
8.6 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-14009

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-14009

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
proofpoint enterprise_protection < 8.13.16 cpe:2.3:a:proofpoint:enterprise_protection:*:*:*:*:-:*:*:*
proofpoint enterprise_protection >= 8.14.0, < 8.16.4 cpe:2.3:a:proofpoint:enterprise_protection:*:*:*:*:-:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-14009

cvelogic Threat Intelligence