CVE-2020-7938Network attack vector

Authenticated privilege escalation via unrestricted role delegation

Published Jan 23, 2020 · Updated Aug 4, 2024

Improper privilege management in Plone 5.2.0 through 5.2.1 allows remote authenticated users to gain the highest site role. The plone.restapi @sharing POST deserializer forwards attacker-selected roles to update_role_settings without restricting them to roles the caller is authorized to delegate. Any account permitted to change sharing settings can assign itself the Manager role, gaining full control of site content and configuration.

CVSS severity8.8
High
EPSS probability1.47%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Improper privilege management in Plone 5.2.0 through 5.2.1 allows remote authenticated users to gain the highest site role. The plone.restapi @sharing POST deserializer forwards attacker-selected roles to update_role_settings without restricting them to roles the caller is authorized to delegate. Any account permitted to change sharing settings can assign itself the Manager role, gaining full control of site content and configuration.

The record

CVE
CVE-2020-7938
Published
Jan 23, 2020
Updated
Aug 4, 2024
Vendor
Unknown vendor
Product
Unknown product
Classifications
CWE-269, T1098
Attack vector
network
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Jan 23, 2020CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Aug 4, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Affected buildAffected product and version details are unavailable.

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectornetwork
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

Affected products and versions are unavailable in this record.

Published CVSS scores

8.7GitHub Advisory DatabaseCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
8.8NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
6.5NIST NVDAV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectornetwork
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-269Improper Privilege Management
T1098Account Manipulation

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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