# CVE-2020-5824: Denial of service in Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) and Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition (SEP SBE)

> Attackers can cause a denial of service in Symantec Endpoint Protection by tying up application resources, requiring an upgrade to mitigate.

- **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:** 11 Feb 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-grfc-hhv2-5955

## What is CVE-2020-5824?

CVE-2020-5824 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Symantec Endpoint Protection, published on 11 Feb 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) and Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition (SEP SBE), prior to 14.2 RU2 MP1 and prior to 14.2.5569.2100 respectively, may be susceptible to a denial of service vulnerability, which is a type of issue whereby a threat actor attempts to tie up the resources of a resident application, thereby making certain functions unavailable.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-5824?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Symantec Endpoint Protection.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-5824?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-5824 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-5824 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-5824 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Symantec Endpoint Protection

- [CVE-2012-0295](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-0295/): Code injection in n/a (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2018-5237](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-5237/): Privilege escalation in Symantec Endpoint Protection (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2020-5836](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-5836/): Privilege escalation in Symantec Endpoint Protection (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2020-5837](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-5837/): Path traversal in Symantec Endpoint Protection (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2020-5820](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-5820/): Privilege escalation in Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) and Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition (SEP SBE) (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-5824 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-5824 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Symantec Endpoint Protection, published on 11 Feb 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-2020-5824 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Symantec Endpoint Protection. 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-2020-5824/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-5824/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-5824
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-5824
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-5824

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-5824/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.