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Netiq Privileged Account ManagerApplication · Opentext

CVE-2020-11862

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-03-13
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.7.0.2 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in OpenText NetIQ Privileged Account Manager on Linux, Windows, 64 bit allows Flooding.This issue affects NetIQ Privileged Account Manager: before 3.7.0.2.

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 · moderate confidence

A resource exhaustion vulnerability in OpenText NetIQ Privileged Account Manager allows attackers to flood the system with requests due to missing resource limits or throttling controls. This can lead to denial of service by depleting available memory, CPU, or network resources.

MitigationUpgrade NetIQ Privileged Account Manager to version 3.7.0.2 or later. If immediate patching is not possible, implement rate limiting and connection throttling at the network perimeter to mitigate flooding attempts.

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
Netiq Privileged Account ManagerApplication
Affected:< 3.7.0.2

CVSS 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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify NetIQ PAM installation
    Check for running processes named 'PAM' or 'NetIQ' in Task Manager (Windows) or via 'ps aux | grep -i netiq' (Linux). Also look for installation directories such as C:\Program Files\NetIQ or /opt/netiq/ on Linux systems.
    Affected if NetIQ Privileged Account Manager software is found running or installed on the system
  2. Determine installed version
    Locate the version file in the installation directory. Common paths include: <install_dir>/version.txt, <install_dir>/build.info, or access the PAM Admin Console and navigate to Help > About. Alternatively, check the service details if running as a Windows service.
    Affected if The version displayed is below 3.7.0.2 or cannot be determined (implies legacy installation)
  3. Compare version against affected range
    If version is found, compare it numerically to 3.7.0.2. Any version starting with 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, or 3.7.0.0/3.7.0.1 is vulnerable.
    Affected if Installed version is 3.7.0.1 or lower, or if version information shows 3.x where x is less than 7
  4. Verify network accessibility of PAM components
    Check if PAM components (PAM Gateway, PAM Manager, or web console) are exposed to network by reviewing firewall rules, listening ports (typically 8443, 443, 8080), and reverse proxy configurations. Use 'netstat -an | grep -E "(8443|443|8080)"' to identify listening services.
    Affected if The PAM web interface or gateway is reachable from untrusted networks, enabling external attackers to flood the system with requests

If NetIQ Privileged Account Manager is installed and the version is below 3.7.0.2 with network-accessible components, the environment is vulnerable to resource exhaustion attacks via request flooding.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 3.7.0.2 or later
Fixed in 3.7.0.2
Interim mitigation

Upgrade NetIQ Privileged Account Manager to version 3.7.0.2 or later. If immediate patching is not possible, implement rate limiting and connection throttling at the network perimeter to mitigate flooding attempts.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

NetIQ Privileged Account Manager 3.7.0.2

  1. Download NetIQ Privileged Account Manager version 3.7.0.2 or later from the official NetIQ/Micro Focus support portal
  2. Review the upgrade documentation specific to your deployment type (Linux or Windows)
  3. Ensure you have a complete backup of the current PAM installation, including configuration files and databases
  4. Stop the NetIQ PAM services on all nodes in your deployment before beginning the upgrade
  5. Run the upgrade installer for version 3.7.0.2 on each managed server component
  6. After upgrade, verify all services start successfully
  7. Validate that the PAM console is accessible and authentication functions correctly
  8. Confirm the version number displays as 3.7.0.2 or later in the admin console

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Netiq Privileged Account Manager Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-11862 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data