CVE-2020-5015
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 · uneditedIBM Elastic Storage System 6.0.0 through 6.0.1.2 and IBM Elastic Storage Server 5.3.0 through 5.3.6.2 could allow a remote attacker to cause a denial of service by sending malformed UDP requests. IBM X-Force ID: 193486.
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 confidenceIBM Elastic Storage System versions 6.0.0-6.0.1.2 and Elastic Storage Server versions 5.3.0-5.3.6.2 contain a vulnerability where remote attackers can send malformed UDP packets to cause denial of service conditions. The vulnerability is exploitable over the network without authentication.
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>= 5.3.0, <= 5.3.6.2>= 6.0.0, <= 6.0.1.2CVSS 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 installed product and versionRun 'lsattr -El sys0' or check /etc/ibm_storage/version file, or use the management GUI to view system informationAffected if The product is IBM Elastic Storage System version 6.0.0-6.0.1.2 or IBM Elastic Storage Server version 5.3.0-5.3.6.2
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Confirm version is within affected rangeCompare the installed version number to the affected ranges: Elastic Storage Server 5.3.0 through 5.3.6.2, or Elastic Storage System 6.0.0 through 6.0.1.2Affected if The installed version falls within either of these ranges
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Check network exposure to UDP trafficUse 'netstat -anup' or 'ss -unp' to list open UDP sockets and listening services, then verify firewall rules with 'iptables -L' or 'pfctl -s rules'Affected if The system has UDP ports exposed to untrusted networks without filtering
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Review system logs for DoS indicatorsExamine /var/log/messages, /var/log/syslog, or the IBM Elastic Storage management logs for entries indicating UDP packet processing failures, service crashes, or network stack errorsAffected if Logs show repeated failures related to UDP packet handling or unexplained service outages
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Check for unexpected service interruptionsUse 'uptime', 'last', and review any monitoring alerts for periods of unavailable services during the timeframe of potential attacksAffected if The storage system experienced unexplained denial of service events coinciding with external UDP traffic
A user is affected if they run IBM Elastic Storage System 6.0.0-6.0.1.2 or Elastic Storage Server 5.3.0-5.3.6.2 with UDP network exposure to untrusted sources.
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 vendor-supplied patches to update to fixed versions beyond 6.0.1.2 and 5.3.6.2, or implement network-level UDP traffic filtering/firewall rules to restrict unauthorized UDP traffic to affected systems.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-5015 — 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-2020-5015 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
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