# CVE-2020-4217: Denial of service in Spectrum Scale

> Attackers can crash IBM Spectrum Scale daemons, causing denial of service for the cluster and managed file systems.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.0/I:N/PR:N/C:N/AV:N/A:H/AC:L/UI:N/S:U/RL:O/RC:C/E:U`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 9 Mar 2020
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-rh46-rhp9-6x53

## What is CVE-2020-4217?

CVE-2020-4217 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Ibm Spectrum Scale, published on 9 Mar 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2 and 5.0 file system component is affected by a denial of service security vulnerability. An attacker can force the Spectrum Scale mmfsd/mmsdrserv daemons to unexpectedly exit, impacting the functionality of the Spectrum Scale cluster and the availability of file systems managed by Spectrum Scale. IBM X-Force ID: 175067.

Weakness: CWE-754 (Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-4217?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Ibm Spectrum Scale.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-4217?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-4217 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-4217 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-4217 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Ibm Spectrum Scale

- [CVE-2019-4715](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-4715/): Command injection in Spectrum Scale (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2021-29740](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-29740/): Other in Spectrum Scale (high 8.4)
- [CVE-2019-4558](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-4558/): Privilege escalation in Spectrum Scale (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2020-4273](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-4273/): Command injection in Spectrum Scale (high 7.4)
- [CVE-2020-4411](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-4411/): Denial of service in Spectrum Scale (high 7.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-4217 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-4217 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Ibm Spectrum Scale, published on 9 Mar 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-4217 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Ibm Spectrum Scale. 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-2020-4217/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-4217/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-4217
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-4217
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-4217

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-4217/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.