CVE-2020-4436
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 · uneditedCertain IBM Aspera applications are vulnerable to buffer overflow after valid authentication, which could allow an attacker with intimate knowledge of the system to execute arbitrary code through a service. IBM X-Force ID: 180902.
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 confidenceIBM Aspera applications contain a buffer overflow vulnerability that can be exploited after valid authentication, allowing an attacker with deep system knowledge to execute arbitrary code through a service component.
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<= 3.7.4<= 3.7.4<= 3.9.3<= 3.9.3<= 3.9.10<= 1.4.3<= 3.7.4<= 3.7.4CVSS 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
- High
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed IBM Aspera productRun 'lsb_release -a' or check installed packages via package manager (rpm -qa | grep aspera or dpkg -l | grep aspera) to determine which Aspera application is installedAffected if Any of these products are present: Application Platform On Demand, Faspex On Demand, High Speed Transfer Endpoint, High Speed Transfer Server, High Speed Transfer Server For Cloud Pak For Integration, Proxy Server, Server On Demand, or Shares On Demand
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Check installed version numberRun version command specific to the installed product (for example: 'aspera --version', 'faspex --version', or check product-specific configuration files) and compare against affected version thresholdsAffected if Version is <= 3.7.4 for On Demand products, <= 3.9.3 for High Speed Transfer Endpoint/Server, <= 3.9.10 for Cloud Pak For Integration version, or <= 1.4.3 for Proxy Server
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Verify service component statusCheck if Aspera service components are running (processes like asperahttpd, asperacentral, or aspera transfer service) using 'ps aux | grep aspera' or systemd status commandsAffected if Aspera service components are active and the version check in step 2 shows an affected version
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Confirm authentication is configuredReview Aspera authentication configuration files (typically in /opt/aspera/etc/ or product-specific config directories) and verify that user authentication mechanisms are enabledAffected if Authentication is enabled and the version check confirms an affected version - note that valid authentication is required for exploitation
A user is affected if they have any IBM Aspera product installed with a version matching the affected ranges and the service component is running with authentication enabled.
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 dataApply IBM's published patches for Aspera applications and verify the authentication mechanisms are properly configured to restrict access to trusted users only.
- Consultation6.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $8,448.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-4436 — 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-2020-4436 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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