# CVE-2020-14162: An issue was discovered in Pi-Hole through 5.0.


- **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
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 30 Jul 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-x839-xh4j-fgrf

## What is CVE-2020-14162?

CVE-2020-14162 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 30 Jul 2020. 

### Official description

An issue was discovered in Pi-Hole through 5.0. The local www-data user has sudo privileges to execute the pihole core script as root without a password, which could allow an attacker to obtain root access via shell metacharacters to this script's setdns command.

Weakness: CWE-78 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command), CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-14162?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Pi-Hole Pi-Hole.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-14162?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-14162 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-14162 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-14162 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2020-8816](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-8816/): Pi-Hole AdminLTE Remote Code Execution (critical 9.1, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-34087](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-34087/): Pi-Hole AdminLTE Whitelist (now 'Web Allowlist') Remote Command Execution (critical 9.0)
- [CVE-2026-50130](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-50130/): Pi-hole: Local privilege escalation from `pihole` user to root via `/etc/pihole/logrotate` (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2020-11108](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-11108/): File upload in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2019-13051](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-13051/): Pi-Hole 4.3 allows Command Injection. (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-14162 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-14162 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 30 Jul 2020. 
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-14162 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. 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-2020-14162/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-14162/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-14162
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-14162
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-14162

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-14162/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.