Single Sign OnApplication · Redhat
CVE-2020-10695
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedAn insecure modification flaw in the /etc/passwd file was found in the redhat-sso-7 container. An attacker with access to the container can use this flaw to modify the /etc/passwd and escalate their privileges.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThe redhat-sso-7 container image contains /etc/passwd with insecure modification permissions, allowing any user with container access to write to this file. This enables privilege escalation by adding new users with root privileges or modifying existing user entries.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Single Sign OnApplication
< 7.4.4CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify if redhat-sso-7 container is in useList running containers using 'docker ps' or 'podman ps' and look for redhat-sso-7 image names, or check your container orchestration manifests for redhat-sso-7 referencesAffected if A container image based on redhat-sso-7 is currently deployed in the environment
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Check /etc/passwd permissions inside the containerExec into the container (docker exec or podman exec) and run 'ls -la /etc/passwd' to view the file permissionsAffected if The permissions allow write access by non-root users (such as world-writable or group-writable where the group includes non-root users)
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Verify if /etc/passwd is writable by non-root usersFrom inside the container, run 'touch /etc/passwd.test && rm /etc/passwd.test' as a non-root user (or test write access with 'test -w /etc/passwd && echo writable')Affected if Non-root users can successfully modify /etc/passwd
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Check the installed RH-SSO versionInside the container, check the version using 'cat /etc/*release*' or look for version markers in the image metadata, then compare to the affected range: versions before 7.4.4 are affectedAffected if The redhat-sso-7 version is earlier than 7.4.4
A user is affected if they are running a redhat-sso-7 container image version earlier than 7.4.4 where /etc/passwd has insecure permissions allowing non-root users to write to it.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor data7.4.4
Update the redhat-sso-7 container image to a patched version that enforces proper /etc/passwd permissions (typically read-only for non-root users), and ensure containers run with read-only root filesystems where appropriate.
Fix this in Single Sign On
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-10695 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-10695 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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