CVE-2020-15770
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 · uneditedAn issue was discovered in Gradle Enterprise 2018.5. An attacker can potentially make repeated attempts to guess a local user's password, due to lack of lock-out after excessive failed logins.
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 confidenceGradle Enterprise 2018.5 lacks account lockout or rate limiting mechanisms for local user authentication, allowing attackers to make unlimited password guessing attempts against valid user accounts.
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= 2018.5CVSS 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
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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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Identify Gradle Enterprise versionAccess the Gradle Enterprise admin console and navigate to 'About' or check the startup logs. Alternatively, query the API endpoint /api/info or inspect the installation directory for version metadata.Affected if Version is 2018.5 exactly (the only affected version)
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Verify local user authentication is enabledCheck the 'Security' or 'Users' section in the Gradle Enterprise admin console to confirm that local user database authentication (as opposed to SSO/LDAP) is configured.Affected if Local user authentication is enabled and the instance is version 2018.5
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Inspect account lockout configurationReview the security configuration files or admin console settings for any account lockout policy (failed login threshold before lockout). Look for settings like 'maximum failed login attempts' or 'account lockout duration'.Affected if No account lockout policy is defined or configured, meaning unlimited failed attempts are permitted
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Check for rate limiting on authentication endpointsInspect network configuration, web server settings, or any WAF/proxy in front of Gradle Enterprise for rate limiting rules on authentication-related endpoints (login, /api/auth).Affected if No rate limiting or throttling mechanism exists on authentication endpoints
The environment is affected if running Gradle Enterprise version 2018.5 with local user authentication enabled and lacking both account lockout policies and rate limiting on login attempts, allowing unlimited password guessing attempts.
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 dataImplement account lockout policies after failed login threshold and/or deploy rate limiting on authentication endpoints to prevent brute-force attacks.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,272.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-15770 — 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-2020-15770 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
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