CVE-2020-13912
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 · uneditedSolarWinds Advanced Monitoring Agent before 10.8.9 allows local users to gain privileges via a Trojan horse .exe file, because everyone can write to a certain .exe file.
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 confidenceSolarWinds Advanced Monitoring Agent before version 10.8.9 contains a world-writable executable file that any local user can replace with a malicious .exe, enabling local privilege escalation to execute code with elevated privileges.
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< 10.8.9CVSS 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
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/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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Verify SolarWinds Advanced Monitoring Agent is installedOpen Windows Control Panel > Programs and Features, or run 'Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product | Where-Object {$_.Name -like "*SolarWinds*"}' in PowerShellAffected if The software appears in installed programs with a version number below 10.8.9
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Determine the installed version numberCheck the version in Programs and Features, or right-click the executable in Program Files and view Properties > Details to find the File VersionAffected if The reported version is lower than 10.8.9 (e.g., 10.8.8, 10.8.0, etc.)
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Locate SolarWinds Advanced Monitoring Agent executable filesBrowse to the installation directory, typically in Program Files or Program Files (x86) > SolarWinds, or search for files named 'SW*Agent*.exe' or similar SolarWinds executablesAffected if Executable files related to the SolarWinds agent are found on the system
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Check file permissions on the executableRight-click the executable file > Properties > Security tab, or run 'icacls "<executable_path>"' in Command Prompt to view permission entriesAffected if The file shows 'Everyone' or 'Users' or 'BUILTIN\Users' with '(F)' Full Control or '(W)' Write permission in the access control list
A user is affected if SolarWinds Advanced Monitoring Agent is installed with a version below 10.8.9 AND the executable file grants write permissions to non-privileged users.
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 data10.8.9
Upgrade to SolarWinds Advanced Monitoring Agent version 10.8.9 or later, or immediately restrict write permissions on the vulnerable executable to mitigate privilege escalation.
- 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-2020-13912 — 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-2020-13912 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data