Openvpn Access ServerApplication · Openvpn
CVE-2020-36382
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 · uneditedOpenVPN Access Server 2.7.3 to 2.8.7 allows remote attackers to trigger an assert during the user authentication phase via incorrect authentication token data in an early phase of the user authentication resulting in a denial of service.
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 · moderate confidenceOpenVPN Access Server versions 2.7.3 through 2.8.7 contain a denial of service vulnerability where remote attackers can trigger an assertion failure during the early user authentication phase by sending specially crafted incorrect authentication token data. This causes the server to crash, making the VPN service unavailable.
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
Openvpn Access ServerApplication
>= 2.7.3, <= 2.8.7CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 OpenVPN Access Server versionRun the command 'openvpnas --version' or check the installed package version using your system package manager (e.g., 'rpm -q openvpnas' or 'dpkg -l openvpnas'). The version is also displayed in the admin web interface under System Overview or Status.Affected if The displayed version falls within the range 2.7.3 to 2.8.7 inclusive.
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Confirm OpenVPN Access Server is the productEnsure the installed product is OpenVPN Access Server (openvpnas) and not the open-source OpenVPN community version. The vulnerability specifically affects the Access Server commercial product.Affected if The product is OpenVPN Access Server and the version is 2.7.3 through 2.8.7.
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Verify service availabilityCheck if the OpenVPN Access Server service is running using 'service openvpnas status' or 'systemctl status openvpnas'. The vulnerability causes the service to crash when specially crafted authentication tokens are received.Affected if The service has crashed or becomes unavailable after receiving malformed authentication attempts, particularly during early user authentication.
If OpenVPN Access Server version is 2.7.3, 2.7.4, 2.7.5, 2.8.0, 2.8.1, 2.8.2, 2.8.3, 2.8.4, 2.8.5, 2.8.6, or 2.8.7, the system is vulnerable to CVE-2020-36382.
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 dataUpdate OpenVPN Access Server to a version beyond 2.8.7 where the vulnerability is patched, or apply vendor-supplied patches if available. Consider implementing rate limiting on authentication endpoints as a compensating control.
Fix this in Openvpn Access Server
Scoped from the published advisory
- 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-2020-36382 — 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-2020-36382 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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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.
- 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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