CVE-2020-27986
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 · uneditedSonarQube 8.4.2.36762 allows remote attackers to discover cleartext SMTP, SVN, and GitLab credentials via the api/settings/values URI. NOTE: reportedly, the vendor's position for SMTP and SVN is "it is the administrator's responsibility to configure it.
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 confidenceThe api/settings/values endpoint in SonarQube 8.4.2.36762 exposes sensitive configuration values including SMTP, SVN, and GitLab credentials in cleartext to unauthenticated remote attackers. An attacker can directly query this API to retrieve stored credentials without any authentication.
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= 8.4.2.36762CVSS 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
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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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Identify SonarQube versionAccess the /api/system/status or /about endpoint, or check the SonarQube installation directory for a version file. Compare the installed version to 8.4.2.36762.Affected if The installed version is exactly 8.4.2.36762 (exact match required per affected versions)
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Test unauthenticated access to the settings endpointSend an HTTP GET request to http://<sonarqube-host>/api/settings/values without providing any authentication tokens or credentials.Affected if The endpoint returns an HTTP 200 response without authentication, indicating it is publicly accessible
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Inspect response for sensitive credentialsExamine the JSON response from the /api/settings/values endpoint. Look for keys such as 'sonar.auth.gitlab.clientSecret', 'sonar.svn.password', 'sonar.auth.smtp.securePassword', or similar credential fields.Affected if The response contains cleartext values for any sensitive settings like SMTP passwords, SVN credentials, or GitLab client secrets
You are affected if running SonarQube version 8.4.2.36762 and the /api/settings/values endpoint returns sensitive credential data without requiring authentication.
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 dataRestrict unauthenticated access to the api/settings/values endpoint and upgrade to a patched version of SonarQube that properly protects sensitive configuration values.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,560.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-27986 — 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-2020-27986 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