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PloneApplication

CVE-2020-35190

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-12-17
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 4.3.18-alpine or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
The official plone Docker images before version of 4.3.18-alpine (Alpine specific) contain a blank password for a root user. System using the plone docker container deployed by affected versions of the docker image may allow a remote attacker to achieve root access with a blank password.

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

The official Plone Docker Alpine-based images prior to version 4.3.18-alpine contain a blank password configured for the root user. This misconfiguration allows remote attackers to authenticate as root without any credentials, achieving full system control.

MitigationUpgrade Plone Docker deployments to version 4.3.18-alpine or later, which contains the corrected image with proper root password configuration. Alternatively, redeploy using non-Alpine variants if available.

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
PloneApplication
Affected:>= 4.0.0-alpine, < 4.3.18-alpine

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
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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. Identify the Plone Docker image version in use
    Run 'docker images' or 'docker inspect <container_id>' to retrieve the image tag and version
    Affected if The image version is between 4.0.0-alpine and 4.3.17-alpine (inclusive)
  2. Confirm the image is Alpine-based
    Check the image tag or image name for 'alpine' in the variant (e.g., 4.3.17-alpine)
    Affected if The image tag contains 'alpine' and the version is below 4.3.18-alpine
  3. Inspect root user password configuration
    Examine the Docker image configuration or shadow file within the container for the root password entry
    Affected if The root password field is empty, blank, or set to no password (e.g., empty string in /etc/shadow or password field in docker config)
  4. Determine if the container is network-accessible
    Check container network settings using 'docker inspect' or review firewall/network ACLs controlling access to the container's exposed ports
    Affected if The Plone service ports are exposed to untrusted networks or the internet without authentication barriers in place

A user is affected if they are running a Plone Docker Alpine-based image version 4.0.0-alpine through 4.3.17-alpine with root password left blank and the service is network-accessible.

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 4.3.18-alpine or later
Fixed in 4.3.18-alpine
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Plone Docker deployments to version 4.3.18-alpine or later, which contains the corrected image with proper root password configuration. Alternatively, redeploy using non-Alpine variants if available.

Recommended fix High confidence

plone:4.3.18-alpine or later (or use the non-alpine variant such as plone:4.3.18)

  1. Upgrade the Plone Docker image from the affected Alpine version to version 4.3.18-alpine or later
  2. Pull the fixed image using: docker pull plone:4.3.18-alpine (or a newer version)
  3. Redeploy the container using the new image
  4. If using docker-compose, update the image tag in your docker-compose.yml to use 4.3.18-alpine or later
  5. After deployment, verify the root account has a proper password set by accessing the container and checking /etc/shadow
Caveat Minimal - this is a security patch upgrade within the same minor release; verify custom add-ons are compatible with 4.3.18

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

Fix this in Plone Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,570
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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-2020-35190 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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