# CVE-2020-27781: Privilege escalation in Ceph

> Attackers can steal Ceph credentials via OpenStack Manila to escalate privileges and access arbitrary resources, including admin accounts.

- **Severity:** High 7.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N`)
- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 18 Dec 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2020-27781, GHSA-mh9p-7vgq-83jw, SUSE-SU-2020:3895-1, SUSE-SU-2021:0023-1, UBUNTU-CVE-2020-27781, openSUSE-SU-2020:2327-1, openSUSE-SU-2021:0079-1

## What is CVE-2020-27781?

CVE-2020-27781 is a high-severity vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora, published on 18 Dec 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

User credentials can be manipulated and stolen by Native CephFS consumers of OpenStack Manila, resulting in potential privilege escalation. An Open Stack Manila user can request access to a share to an arbitrary cephx user, including existing users. The access key is retrieved via the interface drivers. Then, all users of the requesting OpenStack project can view the access key. This enables the attacker to target any resource that the user has access to. This can be done to even "admin" users, compromising the ceph administrator. This flaw affects Ceph versions prior to 14.2.16, 15.x prior to 15.2.8, and 16.x prior to 16.2.0.

Weakness: CWE-522 (Insufficiently Protected Credentials)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-27781?

It affects 5 products.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `ceph` | SUSE:Enterprise Storage 6 | All versions | 14.2.16.402+g7d47dbaf4d-3.57.1 |
| `ceph` | SUSE:Enterprise Storage 7 | All versions | 15.2.8.80+g1f4b6229ca-3.13.1 |
| `ceph` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP1 | All versions | 14.2.16.402+g7d47dbaf4d-3.57.1 |
| `ceph` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP2 | All versions | 15.2.8.80+g1f4b6229ca-3.13.1 |
| `ceph` | openSUSE:Leap 15.1 | All versions | 14.2.16.402+g7d47dbaf4d-lp151.2.31.1 |
| `ceph-test` | openSUSE:Leap 15.1 | All versions | 14.2.16.402+g7d47dbaf4d-lp151.2.31.1 |
| `ceph` | openSUSE:Leap 15.2 | All versions | 15.2.8.80+g1f4b6229ca-lp152.2.9.1 |
| `ceph-test` | openSUSE:Leap 15.2 | All versions | 15.2.8.80+g1f4b6229ca-lp152.2.9.1 |

Products: Fedoraproject Fedora, Redhat Ceph, Redhat Ceph Storage, Redhat Openshift Container Platform, Redhat Openstack Platform.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-27781?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2020-27781 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-27781 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Fedoraproject Fedora

- [CVE-2024-4577](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-4577/): PHP-CGI OS Command Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2021-39226](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-39226/): Grafana Authentication Bypass (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2019-5544](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5544/): VMware ESXi and Horizon DaaS OpenSLP Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-4947](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-4947/): Google Chromium V8 Type Confusion (critical 9.6, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-4671](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-4671/): Google Chromium Visuals Use-After-Free (critical 9.6, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-27781 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-27781 is a high-severity vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora, published on 18 Dec 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-2020-27781 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Fedoraproject Fedora. 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-2020-27781/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-27781/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-27781
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-27781
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-27781

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-27781/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.