# CVE-2020-5180: Privilege escalation in n/a

> An unprivileged user can load a malicious library into the OpenVPN process via Viscosity, leading to limited local privilege escalation and arbitrary code execution.

- **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
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 14 Jan 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-p8rm-72hp-945c

## What is CVE-2020-5180?

CVE-2020-5180 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 14 Jan 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Viscosity 1.8.2 on Windows and macOS allows an unprivileged user to set a subset of OpenVPN parameters, which can be used to load a malicious library into the memory of the OpenVPN process, leading to limited local privilege escalation. (When a VPN connection is initiated using a TLS/SSL client profile, the privileges are dropped, and the library will be loaded, resulting in arbitrary code execution as a user with limited privileges. This greatly reduces the impact of the vulnerability.)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-5180?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Sparklabs Viscosity.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-5180?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-5180 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-5180 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-5180 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2012-4284](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-4284/): Privilege escalation in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-20123](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-20123/): Viscosity DLL untrusted search path (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-5180 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-5180 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 14 Jan 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-2020-5180 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-2020-5180/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-5180/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-5180
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-5180
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-5180

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-5180/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.