# CVE-2020-15909: Auth bypass in n/a

> Attackers can hijack sessions in SolarWinds N-central by stealing JSESSIONID cookies, gaining unauthorized access to the privileged management interface.

- **Severity:** High 8.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 19 Oct 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-mw9v-68m8-wr95

## What is CVE-2020-15909?

CVE-2020-15909 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in n/a, published on 19 Oct 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

SolarWinds N-central through 2020.1 allows session hijacking and requires user interaction or physical access. The N-Central JSESSIONID cookie attribute is not checked against multiple sources such as sourceip, MFA claim, etc. as long as the victim stays logged in within N-Central. To take advantage of this, cookie could be stolen and the JSESSIONID can be captured. On its own this is not a surprising result; low security tools allow the cookie to roam from machine to machine. The JSESSION cookie can then be used on the attackers’ workstation by browsing to the victim’s NCentral server URL and replacing the JSESSIONID attribute value by the captured value. Expected behavior would be to check this against a second source and enforce at least a reauthentication or multi factor request as N-Central is a highly privileged service.

Weakness: CWE-384 (Session Fixation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-15909?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Solarwinds N-Central.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-15909?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-15909 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-15909 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-15909 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2020-25617](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-25617/): Path traversal in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2020-25618](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-25618/): Privilege escalation in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2020-25622](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-25622/): Cross-site request forgery in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2020-25621](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-25621/): Missing authorization in n/a (high 8.4)
- [CVE-2020-25620](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-25620/): Hardcoded credentials in n/a (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-15909 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-15909 is a high-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in n/a, published on 19 Oct 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-15909 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-2020-15909/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-15909/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-15909
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-15909
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-15909

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-15909/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.