# CVE-2020-11075: Shell Escape in Anchore Engine

> An authenticated attacker can execute arbitrary commands in the Anchore Engine analyzer environment by submitting a malicious container image manifest.

- **Severity:** High 7.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 27 May 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-w4rm-w22x-h7m5

## What is CVE-2020-11075?

CVE-2020-11075 is a high-severity command injection vulnerability in anchore-engine, published on 27 May 2020. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

In Anchore Engine version 0.7.0, a specially crafted container image manifest, fetched from a registry, can be used to trigger a shell escape flaw in the anchore engine analyzer service during an image analysis process. The image analysis operation can only be executed by an authenticated user via a valid API request to anchore engine, or if an already added image that anchore is monitoring has its manifest altered to exploit the same flaw. A successful attack can be used to execute commands that run in the analyzer environment, with the same permissions as the user that anchore engine is run as - including access to the credentials that Engine uses to access its own database which have read-write ability, as well as access to the running engien analyzer service environment. By default Anchore Engine is released and deployed as a container where the user is non-root, but if users run Engine directly or explicitly set the user to 'root' then that level of access may be gained in the execution environment where Engine runs. This issue is fixed in version 0.7.1.

Weakness: CWE-114 (Process Control)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-11075?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Anchore Engine.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-11075?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-11075 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-11075 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-11075 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-11075 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-11075 is a high-severity command injection vulnerability in anchore-engine, published on 27 May 2020. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-11075 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: anchore-engine. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-11075/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-11075/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-11075
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-11075
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-11075

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-11075/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.