CVE-2020-7070 | PHP parses encoded cookie names so malicious `__Host-` cookies can be sent

Exp

In PHP versions 7.2.x below 7.2.34, 7.3.x below 7.3.23 and 7.4.x below 7.4.11, when PHP is processing incoming HTTP cookie values, the cookie names are url-decoded. This may lead to cookies with prefixes like __Host confused with cookies that decode to such prefix, thus leading to an attacker being able to forge cookie which is supposed to be secure. See also CVE-2020-8184 for more information.

Published: 2020-10-02 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-7070 is rated High Exploit Risk (64.3/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 26.09%, 96th percentile). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). 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-2020-7070

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-7070

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 2026-05-07 27.65% 26.09% -1.56%
2 2026-04-24 29.08% 27.65% -1.42%
3 2026-04-21 — 29.08% —

Full EPSS history (51 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-7070

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
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.
 2.8 1.4 [email protected]
5.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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.
 3.9 1.4 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/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:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-7070

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-7070

vendor priority summary link
alpine medium CVE-2020-7070: 1 source package rows (php7); 1 state rows across 1 repos (edge-community); fixed 1, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2020-7070
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-7070 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (php7.4), 1 status rows across 1 suites (bullseye): resolved 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-7070
gentoo low CVE-2020-7070: 1 GLSA(s) (202012-16), 1 atom(s) (dev-lang/php); latest impact low. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2020-7070
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-7070
suse medium CVE-2020-7070 severity moderate: SUSE including 840 source package names (apache2-mod_php5-5.2.14-111.72.1, apache2-mod_php5-5.5.14-109.82.1, …), 1996 product×package rows across 46 product lines (SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, SUSE Enterprise Storage 6, … (46 product lines)): Fixed 1996. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-7070/
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-7070 medium priority: Ubuntu including 4 source packages (php5, php7.0, php7.2, php7.4), 24 status rows across 6 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 15, released 5, needs-triage 4. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-7070

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-7070

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
php php >= 7.2.0, < 7.2.34 cpe:2.3:a:php:php:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
php php >= 7.3.0, < 7.3.23 cpe:2.3:a:php:php:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
php php >= 7.4.0, < 7.4.11 cpe:2.3:a:php:php:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 31 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:31:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 32 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:32:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 33 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:33:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse leap 15.1 cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:15.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse leap 15.2 cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:15.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
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:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
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 clustered_data_ontap — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:clustered_data_ontap:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
tenable tenable.sc < 5.19.0 cpe:2.3:a:tenable:tenable.sc:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-7070

URL Tags
http://cve.circl.lu/cve/CVE-2020-8184 Third Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-10/msg00045.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-10/msg00067.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=79699 Issue Tracking Vendor Advisory
https://hackerone.com/reports/895727 Exploit Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/10/msg00008.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/7EVDN7D3IB4EAI4D3ZOM2OJKQ5SD7K4E/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/P2J3ZZDHCSX65T5QWV4AHBN7MOJXBEKG/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/RRU57N3OSYZPOMFWPRDNVH7EMYOTSZ66/
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202012-16 Third Party Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20201016-0001/ Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4583-1/ Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4856 Third Party Advisory
https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2021.html Not Applicable Third Party Advisory
https://www.tenable.com/security/tns-2021-14 Third Party Advisory
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