CVE-2020-14699
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 · uneditedVulnerability in the Oracle VM VirtualBox product of Oracle Virtualization (component: Core). Supported versions that are affected are Prior to 5.2.44, prior to 6.0.24 and prior to 6.1.12. Difficult to exploit vulnerability allows high privileged attacker with logon to the infrastructure where Oracle VM VirtualBox executes to compromise Oracle VM VirtualBox. While the vulnerability is in Oracle VM VirtualBox, attacks may significantly impact additional products. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in takeover of Oracle VM VirtualBox. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 7.5 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).
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 confidenceVulnerability in the Oracle VM VirtualBox core virtualization component allowing a high-privileged attacker with local infrastructure access to compromise and take over VirtualBox. The attack is difficult to exploit (high complexity) and requires the attacker to have high privileges and logon access to the environment where VirtualBox runs.
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< 5.2.44>= 6.0.0, < 6.0.24>= 6.1.0, < 6.1.12= 15.1= 15.2CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- High
- Privileges
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/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 VirtualBox is installedRun 'VBoxManage --version' on the target host. If the command is not found, VirtualBox is not installed.Affected if VBoxManage command returns a version number, indicating VirtualBox is present
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Identify installed VirtualBox versionExecute 'VBoxManage --version' and note the full version number returned (e.g., 6.1.10).Affected if A version number is returned by the command
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Compare version against affected rangesCompare the installed version to: < 5.2.44, >= 6.0.0 and < 6.0.24, or >= 6.1.0 and < 6.1.12. Any version falling into these ranges is affected.Affected if Installed version is 5.2.44 or higher but less than 5.2.44 (not applicable), OR between 6.0.0 and 6.0.23 inclusive, OR between 6.1.0 and 6.1.11 inclusive
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Confirm OS is OpenSUSE Leap 15.1 or 15.2 with VirtualBoxIf VirtualBox is installed on OpenSUSE, run 'cat /etc/os-release' to check the OS version.Affected if Running OpenSUSE Leap 15.1 or 15.2 with any VirtualBox version from the affected ranges (since vendor-provided packages may be backported)
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Verify high-privileged local access requirementThis CVE requires an attacker with high privileges and logon access to the VirtualBox host. Assess whether untrusted users have such access.Affected if Untrusted or low-privilege users have shell or RDP/logon access to the VirtualBox host machine
A user is affected if VirtualBox is installed and the version falls within 5.2.x < 5.2.44, 6.0.x < 6.0.24, or 6.1.x < 6.1.12, and the host is accessible to untrusted high-privilege 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 data5.2.446.0.246.1.12
Apply Oracle patches by upgrading to version 5.2.44, 6.0.24, 6.1.12 or later per the Oracle Critical Patch Update advisory.
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- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-14699 — 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-2020-14699 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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