CVE-2020-1720

A flaw was found in PostgreSQL's "ALTER ... DEPENDS ON EXTENSION", where sub-commands did not perform authorization checks. An authenticated attacker could use this flaw in certain configurations to perform drop objects such as function, triggers, et al., leading to database corruption. This issue affects PostgreSQL versions before 12.2, before 11.7, before 10.12 and before 9.6.17.

Published: 2020-03-17 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-1720 is rated Low Risk (35.5/100): CVSS Low severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.19%). 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-2020-1720

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 0.35% 1.19% +0.84%
2 2026-01-24 0.20% 0.35% +0.15%
3 2025-03-30 — 0.20% —

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-1720

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
3.1 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/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: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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
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.
 1.6 1.4 [email protected]
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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: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: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.
 2.8 3.6 [email protected]
3.5 2.0 LOW
AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:N/I:P/A:N 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:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 6.8 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-1720

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-1720

vendor priority summary link
alpine medium CVE-2020-1720: 4 source package rows (postgresql, postgresql12, postgresql14, postgresql15); 30 state rows across 13 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-community, 3.17-main, 3.18-community, 3.18-main, 3.19-community, 3.19-main, 3.20-community, 3.20-main, edge-community, edge-main); fixed 19, open 11. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2020-1720
gentoo normal CVE-2020-1720: 1 GLSA(s) (202003-03), 1 atom(s) (dev-db/postgresql); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2020-1720
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-1720
suse medium CVE-2020-1720 severity moderate: SUSE including 235 source package names (10.19:postgresql10-10.13-4.22.4, 10.19:postgresql10-server-10.13-4.22.4, …), 713 product×package rows across 76 product lines (Container suse/manager/5.0/x86_64/server, Container suse/multi-linux-manager/5.1/x86_64/server, … (76 product lines)): Fixed 672, Known Not Affected 41. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-1720/
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-1720 medium priority: Ubuntu including 6 source packages (postgresql-10, postgresql-11, postgresql-12, postgresql-9.1, postgresql-9.3, postgresql-9.5), 30 status rows across 5 suites (bionic, eoan, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 20, needs-triage 5, released 3, not-affected 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-1720

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-1720

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
postgresql postgresql >= 9.6, < 9.6.17 cpe:2.3:a:postgresql:postgresql:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
postgresql postgresql >= 10.0, < 10.12 cpe:2.3:a:postgresql:postgresql:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
postgresql postgresql >= 11.0, < 11.7 cpe:2.3:a:postgresql:postgresql:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
postgresql postgresql >= 12.0, < 12.2 cpe:2.3:a:postgresql:postgresql:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat decision_manager 7.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:decision_manager:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat software_collections — cpe:2.3:a:redhat:software_collections:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-1720

cvelogic Threat Intelligence