CVE-2020-15861

Net-SNMP through 5.7.3 allows Escalation of Privileges because of UNIX symbolic link (symlink) following.

Published: 2020-08-19 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-15861 is rated Moderate Risk (43.8/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.46%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

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-2020-15861

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 0.43% 0.46% +0.02%
2 2025-11-25 0.51% 0.43% -0.08%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.51% —

Full EPSS history (17 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-15861

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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: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: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.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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: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: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.
 1.8 5.9 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
7.2 2.0 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 3.9 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-15861

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-15861

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-15861 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (net-snmp), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-15861
gentoo normal CVE-2020-15861: 1 GLSA(s) (202008-12), 1 atom(s) (net-analyzer/net-snmp); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2020-15861
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-15861
suse high CVE-2020-15861 severity important: SUSE including 9 source package names (libsnmp30, libsnmp30-32bit, …), 86 product×package rows across 24 product lines (SUSE CaaS Platform 3.0, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 12 SP4, … (24 product lines)): Known Not Affected 86. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-15861/
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-15861 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (net-snmp), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bionic, focal, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 5. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-15861

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-15861

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
net-snmp net-snmp <= 5.7.3 cpe:2.3:a:net-snmp:net-snmp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 12.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:*:*:*:-:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 20.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
netapp cloud_backup — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:cloud_backup:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp smi-s_provider — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:smi-s_provider:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp solidfire_\&_hci_management_node — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:solidfire_\&_hci_management_node:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-15861

cvelogic Threat Intelligence