CVE-2020-15114 — etcd
HIGHCVE-2020-15114 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.7) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in go.etcd.io/etcd. A fix is available for go.etcd.io/etcd — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Etcd Gateway can include itself as an endpoint resulting in resource exhaustion
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2020-15114 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,567 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
go.etcd.io/etcd🐹go.etcd.io/etcdReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Vulnerability type
Denial of Service
Detail
The etcd gateway is a simple TCP proxy to allow for basic service discovery and access. However, it is possible to include the gateway address as an endpoint. This results in a denial of service, since the endpoint can become stuck in a loop of requesting itself until there are no more available file descriptors to accept connections on the gateway.
References
Find out more on this vulnerability in the security audit report
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Contact the etcd security committee
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | go.etcd.io/etcd | ≥ 3.4.0-rc.0&&< 3.4.10 | 3.4.10go get go.etcd.io/etcd@v3.4.10 |
| 🐹Go | go.etcd.io/etcd | all versions | 3.3.23go get go.etcd.io/etcd@v3.3.23 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for go.etcd.io/etcd, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update go.etcd.io/etcd to 3.4.10 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-15114 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 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2020-15114 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2020-15114. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
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.
In the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (RHOCP), the vulnerable ectd is used in the ose-etcd-container. The etcd gateway uses version 2 API which is not used by OCP, hence the impact of this vulnerability is Low. In Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) does not use the etcd gateway and as well its use is limited to…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.8 | openshift4/ose-etcd:v4.8.0-202106152230.p0.git.aefa6bf.assembly.stream | RHSA-2021:2438 |
| Red Hat OpenStack Platform 16.1 | etcd-0:3.3.23-1.el8ost | RHSA-2021:0916 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2020-15114 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2020-15114 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.