CVE-2020-24908
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 · uneditedCheckmk before 1.6.0p17 allows local users to obtain SYSTEM privileges via a Trojan horse shell script in the %PROGRAMDATA%\checkmk\agent\local directory.
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 confidenceCheckmk before version 1.6.0p17 contains a local privilege escalation vulnerability where unprivileged local users can place a malicious shell script in the %PROGRAMDATA%\checkmk\agent\local directory. This script gets executed with SYSTEM-level privileges by the Checkmk agent, allowing attackers to gain full administrative control over the affected system.
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< 1.6.0= 1.6.0CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/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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Identify Checkmk versionCheck the Windows Registry at HKLM\SOFTWARE\checkmk\InstalledVersion or examine the Checkmk agent installation directory under Program FilesAffected if The installed version is 1.6.0 or any version below 1.6.0p17
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Confirm Checkmk agent is deployedVerify the Checkmk agent service is installed and running, or check that the directory %PROGRAMDATA%\checkmk\agent exists on the systemAffected if The Checkmk agent is installed and the vulnerable directory structure is present
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Check vulnerable directory permissionsReview file system permissions on %PROGRAMDATA%\checkmk\agent\local to determine if unprivileged or untrusted local users have write or create permissionsAffected if Non-admin users have write access to the local directory, allowing them to place executable scripts
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Verify agent executes local scriptsConfirm the Checkmk agent is configured to execute custom scripts from the local directory, which is the default behavior for the agentAffected if The agent configuration enables local script execution (this is the default behavior in affected versions)
You are affected if the Checkmk agent version is 1.6.0 or below 1.6.0p17, the agent is installed, and untrusted local users can write files to the agent's local directory.
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 data1.6.0
Upgrade Checkmk to version 1.6.0p17 or later. As a compensating control, immediately restrict file system permissions on the %PROGRAMDATA%\checkmk\agent\local directory to prevent untrusted users from adding files.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-24908 — 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-2020-24908 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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