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Cloud AgentApplication · Weave

CVE-2020-35464

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-12-15
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
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
Version 1.3.0 of the Weave Cloud Agent Docker image contains a blank password for the root user. Systems deployed using affected versions of the Weave Cloud Agent container 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

Version 1.3.0 of the Weave Cloud Agent Docker image contains a blank password for the root user, allowing remote attackers to authenticate as root and gain full control of the container with root privileges.

MitigationUpdate to a patched version of the Weave Cloud Agent that addresses the blank root password, or rebuild the container image with a strong root password if no patched version is 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
Cloud AgentApplication
Affected:= 1.3.0

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 Weave Cloud Agent container or image
    Run 'docker ps -a' or 'docker images' and look for any container or image named 'weave-cloud-agent', 'weave', or similar variants of the Weave Cloud Agent
    Affected if A container or image related to Weave Cloud Agent is present in the environment
  2. Check the installed version of Weave Cloud Agent
    Run 'docker images' and check the tag/version, or inspect the container with 'docker inspect <container_id>' to find the image tag. Look for version 1.3.0 specifically
    Affected if The image version is exactly 1.3.0
  3. Verify root user authentication is enabled
    Check the Docker image configuration or Dockerfile for root login capabilities. If the container is running, exec into it and check /etc/shadow for the root user entry
    Affected if Root user has an entry in /etc/shadow with an empty password field (starts with :: or contains no hash)
  4. Confirm blank root password vulnerability
    If you can access the container, attempt to switch to root with 'su -' or check authentication logs. The vulnerability exists if root login succeeds without a password prompt
    Affected if Root authentication succeeds with an empty password or no password is required

A user is affected if they are running Weave Cloud Agent version 1.3.0 with root user configured with a blank/empty password.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update to a patched version of the Weave Cloud Agent that addresses the blank root password, or rebuild the container image with a strong root password if no patched version is available.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

latest available version (verify release notes for version after 1.3.0 that addresses CVE-2020-35464)

  1. 1. Stop any running containers using the affected Weave Cloud Agent image (version 1.3.0)
  2. 2. Pull the latest version of the Weave Cloud Agent image from the official repository
  3. 3. Review the image release notes or changelog to confirm the blank password vulnerability is addressed
  4. 4. Deploy the updated image, ensuring to configure a strong root password or disable root login if not required
  5. 5. Verify that authentication is now required for root access
  6. 6. If the application supports it, consider running the container with non-root user privileges for additional security
Caveat ensure any automation or scripts that relied on blank password access are updated with proper credentials

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

Fix this in Cloud Agent Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $890
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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-2020-35464 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