CVE-2020-11979 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-379 vulnerability in org.apache.ant:ant. A fix is available for org.apache.ant:ant — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Code injection in Apache Ant
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2020-11979 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 385,987 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
org.apache.ant:antReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
As mitigation for CVE-2020-1945 Apache Ant 1.10.8 changed the permissions of temporary files it created so that only the current user was allowed to access them. Unfortunately the fixcrlf task deleted the temporary file and created a new one without said protection, effectively nullifying the effort. This would still allow an attacker to inject modified source files into the build process.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.apache.ant:ant | all versions | 1.10.9org.apache.ant:ant:1.10.9 |
Affected Products
antapachefedorafedoraprojectgradlegradleagile engineering data managementoracleapi gatewayoraclebanking platformoracleDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.apache.ant:ant, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.apache.ant:ant to 1.10.9 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-11979 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.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
ant as shipped in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 is not affected by this flaw because this flaw is caused by the patch for CVE-2020-1945, however, it was never applied to ant as shipped in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, because the decision was made by Engineering to WONTFIX that flaw. In OpenShift Container Platform (OCP),…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 3.11 | jenkins-0:2.263.3.1612433584-1.el7 | RHSA-2021:0637 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.5 | conmon-2:2.0.21-1.rhaos4.5.el7 | RHSA-2021:0429 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 | jenkins-0:2.263.3.1612434510-1.el8 | RHSA-2021:0423 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2020-11979 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.