CVE-2020-11052 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) vulnerability in sorcery. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2020-11052 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts in Sorcery
Real-World Exposure
sorceryReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects RubyGems packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
In Sorcery before 0.15.0, there is a brute force vulnerability when using password authentication via Sorcery. The brute force protection submodule will prevent a brute force attack for the defined lockout period, but once expired, protection will not be re-enabled until a user or malicious actor logs in successfully. This does not affect users that do not use the built-in brute force protection submodule, nor users that use permanent account lockout. This has been patched in 0.15.0.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💎RubyGems | sorcery | all versions | 0.15.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for sorcery. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update sorcery to 0.15.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-11052 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2020-11052 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2020-11052. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2020-11052 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2020-11052 across RubyGems dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.