CVE-2020-11980 Server-Side Request Forgery in Karaf
A viewer role can trigger SSRF and pollute the MBean registry via MLet, bypassing intended access controls in Apache Karaf.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2020-11980?
CVE-2020-11980 is a medium-severity server-side request forgery vulnerability in Apache Karaf, published on 12 Jun 2020. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In Karaf, JMX authentication takes place using JAAS and authorization takes place using ACL files. By default, only an "admin" can actually invoke on an MBean. However there is a vulnerability there for someone who is not an admin, but has a "viewer" role. In the 'etc/jmx.acl.cfg', such as role can call get*. It's possible to authenticate as a viewer role + invokes on the MLet getMBeansFromURL method, which goes off to a remote server to fetch the desired MBean, which is then registered in Karaf. At this point the attack fails as "viewer" doesn't have the permission to invoke on the MBean. Still, it could act as a SSRF style attack and also it essentially allows a "viewer" role to pollute the MBean registry, which is a kind of privilege escalation. The vulnerability is low as it's possible to add a ACL to limit access. Users should update to Apache Karaf 4.2.9 or newer.
Weakness: CWE-918
Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-11980?
2 open source packages ship an affected version, including org.apache.karaf.management:org.apache.karaf.management.server. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
org.apache.karaf.management:org.apache.karaf.management.server Maven | All versions | 4.2.9 |
org.apache.karaf.management:org.apache.karaf.management.server Maven | All versions | 4.2.9 |
Products include Apache Karaf.
How do I fix CVE-2020-11980?
Upgrade org.apache.karaf.management:org.apache.karaf.management.server to 4.2.9 or later.
Upgrade, and send outbound requests through an allow-list that blocks internal addresses. More about Server-side request forgery.
Is CVE-2020-11980 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-11980 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Apache Karaf
- CVE-2026-91012 Apache Karaf: Path Traversal in Config Service Allows Manager-to-Admin Privilege Escalation
- CVE-2026-91048 Missing authorization in Apache Karaf
- CVE-2022-40145 Apache Karaf: JDBC JAAS LDAP injection
- CVE-2018-11788 XML External Entity Reference in Apache Karaf
- CVE-2026-92142 Apache Karaf: Authorization bypass in JMX MBean lifecycle operations
Sources
Also known as GHSA-9jg9-6wm2-x7p5.