CVE-2020-12594
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 · uneditedA privilege escalation flaw allows a malicious, authenticated, privileged CLI user to escalate their privileges on the system and gain full control over the SMG appliance. This affects SMG prior to 10.7.4.
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 confidenceA privilege escalation vulnerability in the Sophos SMG CLI interface allows an authenticated user with existing privileged CLI access to elevate their privileges to full system control. The attacker must already have valid credentials and privileged CLI access to exploit this flaw.
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< 10.7.4CVSS 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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/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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Confirm SMG is installedIdentify if Broadcom Symantec Messaging Gateway is deployed in your environment. Check for the SMG appliance or software installation.Affected if SMG is not present in the environment, the vulnerability does not apply.
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Determine installed SMG versionAccess the SMG administration interface or CLI and retrieve the current software version. Consult SMG documentation for the specific command or location to check the version number.Affected if The installed version is unknown or cannot be determined.
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Compare version against affected rangeCompare your installed version to the affected range: versions prior to 10.7.4 are vulnerable. If your version is 10.7.4 or later, you are not affected by this CVE.Affected if The installed version is below 10.7.4.
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Verify CLI access is enabledCheck the SMG configuration to determine if the CLI interface is enabled and accessible. Review CLI access settings in the SMG administration panel.Affected if CLI interface is disabled and no users have CLI access, exploitation is not possible.
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Audit privileged CLI usersReview the list of users who have privileged CLI access in SMG. Check for any unexpected or unauthorized privileged accounts.Affected if There are users with privileged CLI access, the condition for exploitation exists.
You are affected if SMG is installed, the CLI interface is accessible, a user with privileged CLI access exists, and the installed version is below 10.7.4.
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 data10.7.4
Upgrade SMG appliances to version 10.7.4 or later to resolve the vulnerability. If immediate patching is not possible, restrict CLI access to only trusted administrators and monitor for suspicious privilege escalation activity.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-12594 — 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-2020-12594 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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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.
- 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
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