# CVE-2020-11861: Privilege escalation in Operations Agent

> An attacker can exploit a local privilege escalation vulnerability in Micro Focus Operations Agent to gain root access on the system.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 18 Sep 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-7cxh-q528-m72h

## What is CVE-2020-11861?

CVE-2020-11861 is a high-severity vulnerability in Operations Agent, published on 18 Sep 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Unauthorized escalation of local privileges vulnerability on Micro Focus Operation Agent, affecting all versions prior to versions 12.11. The vulnerability could be exploited to escalate the local privileges and gain root access on the system.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-11861?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Microfocus Operations Agent.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-11861?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-11861 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-11861 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-11861 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Operations Agent

- [CVE-2021-22505](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-22505/): Privilege escalation in Operations Agent (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2024-0622](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-0622/): Local privilege escalation vulnerability could affect OpenText Operations Agent on Non-Windows platforms. (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2026-2123](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-2123/): Privilege escalation vulnerability in Operations Agent (high 8.6)
- [CVE-2019-17085](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-17085/): XML external entity in Operations Agent (medium 6.5)
- [CVE-2021-38129](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-38129/): Information disclosure in Micro Focus Operations Agent. (low 3.3)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-11861 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-11861 is a high-severity vulnerability in Operations Agent, published on 18 Sep 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-11861 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Operations Agent. 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-2020-11861/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-11861/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-11861
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-11861
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-11861

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-11861/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.