CVE-2020-1771
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 · uneditedAttacker is able craft an article with a link to the customer address book with malicious content (JavaScript). When agent opens the link, JavaScript code is executed due to the missing parameter encoding. This issue affects: ((OTRS)) Community Edition: 6.0.26 and prior versions. OTRS: 7.0.15 and prior versions.
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 is a reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in OTRS where an attacker can craft an article containing a malicious link to the customer address book. The link embeds JavaScript code that executes in the agent's browser when opened, due to missing parameter encoding on the link generation.
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>= 5.0.0, <= 5.0.41>= 6.0.0, <= 6.0.26>= 7.0.0, <= 7.0.15CVSS 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
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/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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Determine installed OTRS versionLog into the OTRS admin panel and navigate to Admin > System Administration > System Information, or run the command: perl bin/otrs.Console.pl Admin::Configuration::List 2>/dev/null | grep -i version. Alternatively, check the file VERSION in the OTRS root directory.Affected if The installed version falls within 5.0.0 through 5.0.41, 6.0.0 through 6.0.26, or 7.0.0 through 7.0.15.
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Verify customer address book is accessibleCheck if the CustomerAddressBook module is loaded by reviewing the Kernel/Config.pm file or navigating to Admin > Framework in the admin panel and inspecting loaded modules.Affected if The CustomerAddressBook feature is enabled and agents can access it.
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Inspect article storage for address book linksQuery the article database table (article, article_data_mime, or similar depending on version) for records containing the string 'CustomerAddressBook' in link parameters, or examine the file system storage under var/article for encoded links.Affected if Articles contain links to the customer address book with unencoded parameters.
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Review agent session logs for address book accessExamine the system log (Admin > System Log) or the file var/log/otrs.log for requests to index.pl?Action=CustomerAddressBook, especially with unusual parameter patterns.Affected if There are access logs showing agents opened articles containing crafted address book links.
A user is affected if their OTRS installation version is between 5.0.0-5.0.41, 6.0.0-6.0.26, or 7.0.0-7.0.15 AND the customer address book feature is enabled, allowing reflected XSS via malicious article links.
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 dataUpgrade to OTRS Community Edition 6.0.27 or later, or OTRS 7.0.16 or later to obtain the patched version with proper parameter encoding.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 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-2020-1771 — 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-2020-1771 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