CVE-2020-5301 is a low-severity (CVSS 3.1) Information Exposure vulnerability in simplesamlphp/simplesamlphp. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2020-5301 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Information disclosure of source code in SimpleSAMLphp
Real-World Exposure
simplesamlphp/simplesamlphpReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
SimpleSAMLphp versions before 1.18.6 contain an information disclosure vulnerability. The module controller in SimpleSAML\Module that processes requests for pages hosted by modules, has code to identify paths ending with .php and process those as PHP code. If no other suitable way of handling the given path exists it presents the file to the browser. The check to identify paths ending with .php does not account for uppercase letters. If someone requests a path ending with e.g. .PHP and the server is serving the code from a case-insensitive file system, such as on Windows, the processing of the PHP code does not occur, and the source code is instead presented to the browser. An attacker may use this issue to gain access to the source code in third-party modules that is meant to be private, or even sensitive. However, the attack surface is considered small, as the attack will only work when SimpleSAMLphp serves such content from a file system that is not case-sensitive, such as on Windows. This issue is fixed in version 1.18.6.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | simplesamlphp/simplesamlphp | all versions | 1.18.6 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for simplesamlphp/simplesamlphp. 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 simplesamlphp/simplesamlphp to 1.18.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-5301 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-2020-5301 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-2020-5301. 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-2020-5301 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2020-5301 across Packagist dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.