CVE-2020-24164
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 · uneditedA deserialization flaw is present in Taoensso Nippy before 2.14.2. In some circumstances, it is possible for an attacker to create a malicious payload that, when deserialized, will allow arbitrary code to be executed. This occurs because there is automatic use of the Java Serializable interface.
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 confidenceA deserialization vulnerability in Taoensso Nippy versions before 2.14.2 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by supplying a malicious serialized payload. This occurs because the library automatically uses Java's Serializable interface for data serialization/deserialization without proper safeguards, enabling gadget chain attacks when deserializing untrusted data.
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< 2.14.2CVSS 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
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/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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Identify Nippy library versionInspect your project's dependency management file (project.clj, pom.xml, deps.edn, or similar) and locate the Taoensso Nippy dependency entry to find the declared versionAffected if The declared version is a version number less than 2.14.2 (for example, 2.14.0, 2.13.0, or any version before 2.14.2)
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Find Nippy deserialization callsSearch your codebase for Nippy API calls related to deserialization, typically functions likenippy.Deserialize, nippy/from-bytes, or similar read functions provided by the libraryAffected if Your codebase contains calls that deserialize data using Nippy
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Determine source of deserialized dataExamine the deserialization calls identified in step 2 and trace the data source back to its origin - check if the data comes from network input, user uploads, external APIs, message queues, or other untrusted sourcesAffected if The deserialized data originates from any source that is not fully trusted and controlled by your organization (such as unauthenticated network requests, user-submitted data, or external third-party systems)
Your environment is affected if you are using Nippy version lower than 2.14.2 AND your application deserializes data from untrusted sources using Nippy's deserialization functions.
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 data2.14.2
Upgrade Nippy to version 2.14.2 or later. Additionally, implement whitelist-based validation and only deserialize data from trusted sources.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-24164 — 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-2020-24164 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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