How severe is CVE-2020-14871?

CVE-2020-14871 has a CVSS score of 10/10, rated CRITICAL. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2020-14871?

Affected package information for CVE-2020-14871 is not yet fully mapped. Check the official advisory links for details.

How do I fix CVE-2020-14871?

No fixed version has been published for CVE-2020-14871 yet. Monitor the advisory for updates, apply mitigations recommended by the vendor, and use O3 Security to track when a fix becomes available in your stack.

Is CVE-2020-14871 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 8 known exploit references for CVE-2020-14871, including 3 documented proof-of-concept exploits on Exploit-DB and 5 in-the-wild exploitations observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2020-14871?

CVE-2020-14871 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 88.9%, placing it in the 100th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A score above 50% indicates significantly elevated exploitation risk — immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Is CVE-2020-14871 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2020-14871 (Oracle Solaris and Zettabyte File System (ZFS) Unspecified Vulnerability) was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 2021-11-03. CISA required all US federal civilian agencies to remediate this vulnerability by 2022-05-03. The required action was: Apply updates per vendor instructions. Being listed in the KEV catalog is the strongest possible confirmation of active exploitation — treat this as a critical priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2020-14871?

CVE-2020-14871 is classified as Out-of-bounds Write (CWE-787). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

Which products and versions are affected by CVE-2020-14871?

CVE-2020-14871 affects oracle solaris (1 version, e.g. 9). Check the affected-products list on this page against your deployed version to confirm exposure.

When was CVE-2020-14871 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2020-14871 was published on October 21, 2020 and was last updated on October 27, 2025. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

CISA KEV·Added 2021-11-03 — agencies required to remediate by 2022-05-03

CVE-2020-14871

CRITICAL

Vulnerability in the Oracle Solaris product of Oracle Systems (component: Pluggable authentication module). Supported versions that are affected are 10 and 11. Easily exploitable vulnerability…

Published

Oct 21, 2020

Updated

Oct 27, 2025

Affected

0 pkgs

Patched

None yet

Exploits

8 known

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

88.9%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very High Risk100th percentile0.00%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.

Description

Vulnerability in the Oracle Solaris product of Oracle Systems (component: Pluggable authentication module). Supported versions that are affected are 10 and 11. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows unauthenticated attacker with network access via multiple protocols to compromise Oracle Solaris. While the vulnerability is in Oracle Solaris, attacks may significantly impact additional products. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in takeover of Oracle Solaris. Note: This CVE is not exploitable for Solaris 11.1 and later releases, and ZFSSA 8.7 and later releases, thus the CVSS Base Score is 0.0. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 10.0 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).

Affected Products

1 product · 2 configurations

solarisoracle

≥ 10 && < 11.1

1 version

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

EDB-50039remotesolaris

Solaris SunSSH 11.0 x86 - libpam Remote Root (3)

by Nathaniel Singer · Jun 21, 2021

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-49896remotesolaris

Solaris SunSSH 11.0 x86 - libpam Remote Root (2)

by legend · May 21, 2021

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-49261remotesolaris

Solaris SunSSH 11.0 x86 - libpam Remote Root

by Hacker Fantastic · Dec 15, 2020

Exploit-DB Source

Frequently Asked Questions

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2020-14871 in your stack?

O3 detects CVE-2020-14871 across dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

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CVSS Score

10/10

CVSS v3 base score

Vector breakdown

AV:Attack Vector

Network

AC:Attack Complexity

Low

PR:Privileges Required

None

UI:User Interaction

None

S:Scope

Changed

C:Confidentiality

High

I:Integrity

High

A:Availability

High

Raw vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

CWE Classification

CWE-787Out-of-bounds Write

Weaponization

No known public exploit tooling found.

Timeline

Disclosed

Oct 21, 2020

First exploit

Jun 21, 2021

KEV added

Nov 3, 2021

Last updated

Oct 27, 2025

Identifiers

CVE-2020-14871

References

Advisorypacketstormsecurity.com Advisoryopenwall.com Advisoryoracle.com Advisorypacketstormsecurity.com Advisoryopenwall.com Advisoryoracle.com Fixopenwall.com Fixopenwall.com Exploit / PoCpacketstormsecurity.com Exploit / PoCpacketstormsecurity.com Exploit / PoCpacketstormsecurity.com Exploit / PoCpacketstormsecurity.com Exploit / PoCpacketstormsecurity.com Exploit / PoCpacketstormsecurity.com Webcisa.gov

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