CVE-2020-5226 | Cross-site scripting in SimpleSAMLphp

Cross-site scripting in SimpleSAMLphp before version 1.18.4. The www/erroreport.php script allows error reports to be submitted and sent to the system administrator. Starting with SimpleSAMLphp 1.18.0, a new SimpleSAML\Utils\EMail class was introduced to handle sending emails, implemented as a wrapper of an external dependency. This new wrapper allows us to use Twig templates in order to create the email sent with an error report. Since Twig provides automatic escaping of variables, manual escaping of the free-text field in www/errorreport.php was removed to avoid double escaping. However, for those not using the new user interface yet, an email template is hardcoded into the class itself in plain PHP. Since no escaping is provided in this template, it is then possible to inject HTML inside the template by manually crafting the contents of the free-text field.

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-2020-5226 is rated Low Risk (32.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.54%). 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-2020-5226

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 0.34% 0.54% +0.21%
2 2026-05-19 0.40% 0.34% -0.07%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.40% —

Full EPSS history (13 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-5226

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: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: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: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.
 2.3 2.7 [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-2020-5226

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2020-5226

GHSA-mj9p-v2r8-wf8w · Severity: low · Ecosystem: composer — Cross-site scripting in SimpleSAMLphp

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-5226

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-5226 not yet assigned 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-2020-5226
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-5226 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (simplesamlphp), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bionic, eoan, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 3, DNE 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-5226

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-5226

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

References for CVE-2020-5226

cvelogic Threat Intelligence