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PortainerApplication

CVE-2020-24263

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-03-16
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 1.24.1 or later.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable Zero-click

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 · unedited
Portainer 1.24.1 and earlier is affected by an insecure permissions vulnerability that may lead to remote arbitrary code execution. A non-admin user is allowed to spawn new containers with critical capabilities such as SYS_MODULE, which can be used to take over the Docker host.

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 confidence

Portainer 1.24.1 and earlier fails to properly restrict container capabilities during container creation, allowing authenticated non-admin users to spawn containers with privileged capabilities like SYS_MODULE. This capability enables kernel module loading, which can be exploited to escape container isolation and achieve host compromise.

MitigationRestrict non-admin users from creating containers with dangerous capabilities (SYS_MODULE, SYS_ADMIN, CAP_NET_RAW, etc.) by updating Portainer's authorization policies and container creation constraints.

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
PortainerApplication
Affected:<= 1.24.1

CVSS 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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check your Portainer version
    Log into the Portainer web interface and look at the bottom-left corner for the version number, or query the API endpoint GET /api/system/status to retrieve the Version field
    Affected if The displayed version is 1.24.1 or lower
  2. Identify non-admin user accounts with container creation access
    Navigate to Users in the Portainer sidebar, review each user's role, and note any users assigned the 'user' or 'standard' role rather than 'admin'
    Affected if There exists at least one non-admin user account that can create containers
  3. Verify if container capability controls are exposed to non-admin users
    As a non-admin user, attempt to create a new container and examine the container creation form. Look for a 'Capabilities' section or field where additional capabilities such as SYS_MODULE, SYS_ADMIN, or CAP_NET_RAW can be added
    Affected if The container creation form allows adding dangerous capabilities (SYS_MODULE, SYS_ADMIN, CAP_NET_RAW, etc.) without administrative restriction
  4. Confirm dangerous capabilities can be applied during container creation
    Using a non-admin account, create a test container with the SYS_MODULE capability enabled and verify the container starts successfully with that capability granted
    Affected if Non-admin users can successfully create and start containers with SYS_MODULE or other privileged capabilities enabled

Your environment is affected if you are running Portainer version 1.24.1 or lower AND have non-admin users with the ability to create containers that can be assigned privileged capabilities like SYS_MODULE.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 1.24.1
Interim mitigation

Restrict non-admin users from creating containers with dangerous capabilities (SYS_MODULE, SYS_ADMIN, CAP_NET_RAW, etc.) by updating Portainer's authorization policies and container creation constraints.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Portainer >= 1.24.2 (preferably latest stable release such as 1.25.x or later)

  1. 1. Backup your current Portainer installation and configuration data
  2. 2. Stop the current Portainer container
  3. 3. Pull the latest stable Portainer image (or a version confirmed to be >= 1.24.2)
  4. 4. Recreate the Portainer container using the same volume mounts and environment variables as before
  5. 5. Verify the upgrade by logging into Portainer and confirming the version number in the UI footer
  6. 6. Test that non-admin users can no longer create containers with privileged capabilities (SYS_MODULE, NET_ADMIN, etc.)
Caveat Review Portainer release notes for your target version - some UI or API changes may affect existing automation

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Portainer Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-24263 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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