# CVE-2020-14317: Privilege escalation in Wildfly

> An attacker can modify the PID file to force the init script to terminate arbitrary processes as root, leading to privilege escalation.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:** 2 Jun 2021
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** BIT-wildfly-2020-14317, GHSA-p2p6-fgmf-hp85

## What is CVE-2020-14317?

CVE-2020-14317 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Redhat Jboss Enterprise Application Platform, published on 2 Jun 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

It was found that the issue for security flaw CVE-2019-3805 appeared again in a further version of JBoss Enterprise Application Platform - Continuous Delivery (EAP-CD) introducing regression. An attacker could exploit this by modifying the PID file in /var/run/jboss-eap/ allowing the init.d script to terminate any process as root.

Weakness: CWE-364 (Signal Handler Race Condition)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-14317?

1 open source package ship an affected version, including wildfly. It affects 2 products.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `wildfly` | Bitnami | All versions | None |

Products: Redhat Jboss Enterprise Application Platform, Redhat Wildfly.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-14317?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-14317 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-14317 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-14317 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Redhat Jboss Enterprise Application Platform

- [CVE-2017-12149](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12149/): Red Hat JBoss Application Server Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2010-1428](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2010-1428/): Red Hat JBoss Information Disclosure (medium 5.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2010-0738](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2010-0738/): Red Hat JBoss Authentication Bypass (low 3.7, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2016-3690](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-3690/): Deserialization in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-7504](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-7504/): Deserialization in JBoss (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-14317 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-14317 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Redhat Jboss Enterprise Application Platform, published on 2 Jun 2021. 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-2020-14317 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- wildfly (Bitnami): affected all versions; no fix listed

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-2020-14317/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-14317/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-14317
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-14317
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-14317

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-14317/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.