CVE-2020-5302
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 · uneditedMH-WikiBot (an IRC Bot for interacting with the Miraheze API), had a bug that allowed any unprivileged user to access the steward commands on the IRC interface by impersonating the Nickname used by a privileged user as no check was made to see if they were logged in. The issue has been fixed in commit 23d9d5b0a59667a5d6816fdabb960b537a5f9ed1.
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 confidenceMH-WikiBot, an IRC bot for the Miraheze API, contained an authentication bypass vulnerability where steward (privileged) commands could be executed by any unprivileged user by simply impersonating the nickname of a legitimate privileged user. The bot failed to verify that the user was actually logged in before allowing access to privileged commands.
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< 2020-04-06CVSS 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
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
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 MH-WikiBot installationLocate the MH-WikiBot application in your environment by searching for files or processes associated with the Miraheze IRC botAffected if MH-WikiBot is not present in your environment
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Determine MH-WikiBot versionCheck the installed version of MH-WikiBot and compare it to the affected range (versions before 2020-04-06)Affected if The installed version is earlier than 2020-04-06
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Verify authentication fix is presentInspect the bot source code for the authentication verification code added in commit 23d9d5b0a59667a5d6816fdabb960b537a5f9ed1 that validates user login status before executing steward commandsAffected if The fix from commit 23d9d5b0a59667a5d6816fdabb960b537a5f9ed1 is not present in the codebase
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Test steward command accessAttempt to invoke a steward (privileged) command from an unprivileged IRC nickname that mimics a privileged user nickname without completing proper authenticationAffected if Steward commands execute successfully from an unprivileged user without requiring verified login credentials
Your environment is affected if MH-WikiBot versions before 2020-04-06 are running and the authentication verification fix has not been applied, allowing unverified users to execute privileged commands by nickname impersonation.
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 data2020-04-06
Deploy the fix from commit 23d9d5b0a59667a5d6816fdabb960b537a5f9ed1 which adds proper authentication verification before executing steward commands.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 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-2020-5302 — 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-2020-5302 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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