CVE-2020-15816
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 · uneditedIn Western Digital WD Discovery before 4.0.251.0, a malicious application running with standard user permissions could potentially execute code in the application's process through library injection by using DYLD environment variables.
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 confidenceThis vulnerability allows a local attacker with standard user privileges to inject malicious dynamic libraries into the WD Discovery process by exploiting DYLD environment variables. The DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES mechanism on macOS permits arbitrary code execution within the application's process context, enabling privilege escalation from standard user to application-level code execution.
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< 4.0.251.0CVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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 WD Discovery is installedLocate the WD Discovery application on the system. Common installation paths include /Applications/ or ~/Applications/. Verify the application bundle exists as 'WD Discovery.app' or 'WDDiscovery.app'.Affected if The application is not present on the system, the vulnerability does not apply.
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Retrieve the installed version numberNavigate to the WD Discovery application bundle. Right-click the .app file and select 'Show Package Contents'. Open Contents/Info.plist and locate the 'CFBundleShortVersionString' or 'CFBundleVersion' key to obtain the installed version. Alternatively, run: defaults read "/Applications/WD Discovery.app/Contents/Info.plist" CFBundleShortVersionStringAffected if Unable to determine the version, assume potentially affected if the application is present.
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Compare version against the fixCompare the retrieved version string (e.g., 4.0.0.0, 4.0.150.0) to the fixed version 4.0.251.0 using standard version comparison. Any version below 4.0.251.0 is considered affected.Affected if The installed version is less than 4.0.251.0 (for example, 4.0.251.0 > 4.0.100.0).
The system is affected only if WD Discovery is installed and the installed version is below 4.0.251.0, since the flaw requires the vulnerable application version to be present and exploitable via DYLD environment variable injection.
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 data4.0.251.0
Upgrade WD Discovery to version 4.0.251.0 or later, which addresses the DYLD environment variable injection vector.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-15816 — 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-2020-15816 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
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