CVE-2020-5225 | Log injection in SimpleSAMLphp

Log injection in SimpleSAMLphp before version 1.18.4. The www/erroreport.php script, which receives error reports and sends them via email to the system administrator, did not properly sanitize the report identifier obtained from the request. This allows an attacker, under specific circumstances, to inject new log lines by manually crafting this report ID. When configured to use the file logging handler, SimpleSAMLphp will output all its logs by appending each log line to a given file. Since the reportID parameter received in a request sent to www/errorreport.php was not properly sanitized, it was possible to inject newline characters into it, effectively allowing a malicious user to inject new log lines with arbitrary content.

Published: 2020-01-24 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-5225 is rated Low Risk (31.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.17%). 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-2020-5225

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 2025-10-14 0.32% 0.17% -0.15%
2 2025-05-04 0.22% 0.32% +0.10%
3 2025-03-17 — 0.22% —

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-5225

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.4 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
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.
 1.3 2.7 [email protected]
5.4 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/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: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.
 2.8 2.5 [email protected]
5.5 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/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:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 8.0 4.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-5225

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2020-5225

GHSA-6gc6-m364-85ww · Severity: low · Ecosystem: composer — Log injection in SimpleSAMLphp

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-5225

vendor priority summary link
debian low CVE-2020-5225 low priority: Debian including 1 source packages (simplesamlphp), 3 status rows across 3 suites (bookworm, bullseye, sid): resolved 3. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-5225
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-5225 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (simplesamlphp), 17 status rows across 17 suites (bionic, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 12, needed 2, DNE 1, ignored 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-5225

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-5225

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
simplesamlphp simplesamlphp < 1.18.4 cpe:2.3:a:simplesamlphp:simplesamlphp:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-5225

cvelogic Threat Intelligence