CVE-2020-29495
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 · uneditedDELL EMC Avamar Server, versions 19.1, 19.2, 19.3, contain an OS Command Injection Vulnerability in Fitness Analyzer. A remote unauthenticated attacker could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to the execution of arbitrary OS commands on the application's underlying OS with high privileges. This vulnerability is considered critical as it can be leveraged to completely compromise the vulnerable application as well as the underlying operating system. Dell recommends customers to upgrade at the earliest opportunity.
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 confidenceOS Command Injection vulnerability in Dell EMC Avamar Server's Fitness Analyzer component. A remote unauthenticated attacker can inject and execute arbitrary OS commands with high privileges, achieving complete system compromise.
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= 19.1= 19.2= 19.3= 2.5= 2.6CVSS 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
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/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 the installed productConfirm the system runs Dell EMC Avamar Server or Dell EMC Integrated Data Protection Appliance (IDPA) by checking system documentation, product labels, or running 'uname -a' or 'dmidecode' to inspect system information.Affected if The product is Dell EMC Avamar Server or Dell EMC Integrated Data Protection Appliance.
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Check the Avamar Server versionRun the command 'avamversion' or check '/usr/local/avamar/version.txt' to obtain the installed version number of Dell EMC Avamar Server.Affected if The version is 19.1, 19.2, or 19.3.
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Check the IDPA versionRun 'dpcli --get_versions' or check the IDPA management console to obtain the Integrated Data Protection Appliance version.Affected if The version is 2.5 or 2.6.
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Verify Fitness Analyzer component statusCheck if the Fitness Analyzer service is enabled and running by querying the service status via the Avamar administration interface, or by checking for the 'fitnessanalyzer' process using 'ps -ef | grep -i fitness' on the server.Affected if Fitness Analyzer is installed and active on the system.
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Assess network exposure of Fitness AnalyzerReview firewall rules and network access controls to determine if port 8080 (default Fitness Analyzer port) or the Fitness Analyzer web interface is exposed to untrusted networks. Use 'netstat -tlnp | grep -E "8080|fitness"' to identify listening ports.Affected if The Fitness Analyzer interface is reachable from untrusted or external network segments.
The system is affected if it runs Dell EMC Avamar Server version 19.1, 19.2, or 19.3, or IDPA version 2.5 or 2.6, with the Fitness Analyzer component enabled and accessible (especially from untrusted networks).
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.
dbcve · scopedUpgrade to a patched version of Dell EMC Avamar Server as recommended by Dell. If immediate patching is not feasible, restrict network access to the Fitness Analyzer and consider network segmentation as a temporary control.
Contact Dell EMC for the fixed release version (upgrade from 19.1/19.2/19.3)
- Contact Dell EMC support to obtain the security update for Avamar Server version 19.1, 19.2, or 19.3
- Request the specific patch or upgrade path for DSA-2020-272
- Apply the security update to address the OS Command Injection vulnerability in Fitness Analyzer
- Verify the update was successfully applied
- For Integrated Data Protection Appliance users, contact Dell EMC for version 2.5 and 2.6 fixes
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation6.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-29495 — 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-2020-29495 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