CVE-2020-7921 | Administrative action may disable enforcement of per-user IP whitelisting

Improper serialization of internal state in the authorization subsystem in MongoDB Server's authorization subsystem permits a user with valid credentials to bypass IP whitelisting protection mechanisms following administrative action. This issue affects MongoDB Server v4.2 versions prior to 4.2.3; MongoDB Server v4.0 versions prior to 4.0.15; MongoDB Server v4.3 versions prior to 4.3.3and MongoDB Server v3.6 versions prior to 3.6.18.

Published: 2020-05-06 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-7921 is rated Low Risk (35.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.66%). 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-2020-7921

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 0.18% 0.66% +0.48%
2 2025-12-28 0.11% 0.18% +0.07%
3 2025-12-27 — 0.11% —

Full EPSS history (15 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-7921

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.6 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/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: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: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.
 2.1 2.5 [email protected]
5.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/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: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: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.
 1.6 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-2020-7921

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-7921

vendor priority summary link
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-7921
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-7921 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (mongodb), 17 status rows across 17 suites (bionic, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 11, deferred 2, not-affected 2, ignored 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-7921

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-7921

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
mongodb mongodb >= 3.6.0, < 3.6.18 cpe:2.3:a:mongodb:mongodb:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
mongodb mongodb >= 4.0.0, < 4.0.15 cpe:2.3:a:mongodb:mongodb:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
mongodb mongodb >= 4.2.0, < 4.2.3 cpe:2.3:a:mongodb:mongodb:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
mongodb mongodb >= 4.3.0, < 4.3.3 cpe:2.3:a:mongodb:mongodb:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-7921

URL Tags
https://jira.mongodb.org/browse/SERVER-45472 Patch Vendor Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence