CVE-2020-28053 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-863 vulnerability in github.com/hashicorp/consul. A fix is available for github.com/hashicorp/consul — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Privilege Escalation in HashiCorp Consul
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-2020-28053 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 377,333 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
github.com/hashicorp/consul🐹github.com/hashicorp/consul🐹github.com/hashicorp/consulReal-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
HashiCorp Consul and Consul Enterprise 1.2.0 up to 1.8.5 allowed operators with operator:read ACL permissions to read the Connect CA private key configuration. Fixed in 1.6.10, 1.7.10, and 1.8.6.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/hashicorp/consul | ≥ 1.2.0&&< 1.6.10 | 1.6.10go get github.com/hashicorp/consul@v1.6.10 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/hashicorp/consul | ≥ 1.7.0&&< 1.7.10 | 1.7.10go get github.com/hashicorp/consul@v1.7.10 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/hashicorp/consul | ≥ 1.8.0&&< 1.8.6 | 1.8.6go get github.com/hashicorp/consul@v1.8.6 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/hashicorp/consul, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/hashicorp/consul to 1.6.10 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-28053 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-2020-28053 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2020-28053. 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-2020-28053 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2020-28053 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.