CVE-2020-14342

Exp

It was found that cifs-utils' mount.cifs was invoking a shell when requesting the Samba password, which could be used to inject arbitrary commands. An attacker able to invoke mount.cifs with special permission, such as via sudo rules, could use this flaw to escalate their privileges.

Published: 2020-09-09 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2020-14342 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.13%). 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-2020-14342

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-14342

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 2026-01-03 0.16% 0.13% -0.03%
2 2025-11-21 0.15% 0.16% +0.02%
3 2025-11-18 0.15%

Full EPSS history (17 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-14342

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.4 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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: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:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
1.8 2.5 [email protected]
7.0 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.0 5.9 [email protected]
4.4 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
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.
3.4 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-14342

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-14342

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2020-14342: 1 source package rows (cifs-utils); 4 state rows across 4 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, edge-main); fixed 4, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2020-14342
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-14342 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (cifs-utils), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-14342
gentoo normal CVE-2020-14342: 1 GLSA(s) (202009-16), 1 atom(s) (net-fs/cifs-utils); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2020-14342
redhat low https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-14342
suse medium https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-14342/
ubuntu low CVE-2020-14342 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (cifs-utils), 15 status rows across 15 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 15. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-14342

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-14342

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
samba cifs-utils >= 5.6, <= 6.10 cpe:2.3:a:samba:cifs-utils:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 32 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:32:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 33 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:33:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse leap 15.1 cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:15.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-14342

cvelogic Threat Intelligence