CVE-2020-13223
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 · uneditedHashiCorp Vault and Vault Enterprise logged proxy environment variables that potentially included sensitive credentials. Fixed in 1.3.6 and 1.4.2.
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 · high confidenceHashiCorp Vault and Vault Enterprise had a vulnerability where proxy environment variables (such as HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, or NO_PROXY) containing sensitive credentials were being written to application logs. This resulted in information disclosure of authentication secrets used for outbound proxy connections.
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< 1.3.6>= 1.4.0, < 1.4.2CVSS 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
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
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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Check the installed Vault versionRun 'vault version' or 'vault status' to retrieve the version information. Alternatively, check the Vault binary or package version installed on the system.Affected if The version is less than 1.3.6, or greater than or equal to 1.4.0 but less than 1.4.2.
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Verify if proxy environment variables contain credentialsReview the process environment for Vault by checking environment variables HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, or NO_PROXY. Look for patterns like 'http://user:password@proxy' or 'https://user:password@proxy' in the values.Affected if Any of these proxy variables contain embedded credentials in the format 'user:password'.
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Inspect Vault audit logs for exposed proxy credentialsExamine Vault audit log files (typically found in /var/log/vault/audit/ or the configured audit log directory) for entries containing 'HTTP_PROXY', 'HTTPS_PROXY', or 'NO_PROXY' strings that may reveal username:password patterns.Affected if Audit logs contain any proxy environment variable values with embedded credentials.
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Check Vault server logs for credential leakageReview Vault server log files (typically in /var/log/vault/ or the configured log directory) for any occurrences of proxy URL patterns that include authentication credentials.Affected if Server logs contain proxy URLs with credentials in the query string or authority section.
A user is affected if Vault is running a version prior to 1.3.6 or between 1.4.0 and 1.4.2, AND proxy environment variables with embedded credentials are configured or were previously used.
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 data1.3.61.4.2
Upgrade Vault to version 1.3.6, 1.4.2, or later to prevent sensitive proxy credentials from being written to log files. Review existing logs for any exposed credentials and rotate any compromised secrets.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-13223 — 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-2020-13223 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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- 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