CVE-2020-5576
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 · uneditedCross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Movable Type series (Movable Type 7 r.4606 (7.2.1) and earlier (Movable Type 7), Movable Type Advanced 7 r.4606 (7.2.1) and earlier (Movable Type Advanced 7), Movable Type for AWS 7 r.4606 (7.2.1) and earlier (Movable Type for AWS 7), Movable Type 6.5.3 and earlier (Movable Type 6.5), Movable Type Advanced 6.5.3 and earlier (Movable Type Advanced 6.5), Movable Type 6.3.11 and earlier (Movable Type 6.3), Movable Type Advanced 6.3.11 and earlier (Movable Type 6.3), Movable Type Premium 1.29 and earlier, and Movable Type Premium Advanced 1.29 and earlier) allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators via unspecified vectors.
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 confidenceCross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Movable Type CMS allows remote attackers to hijack administrator authentication by tricking logged-in administrators into unknowingly submitting malicious requests to the application.
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<= 1.29>= 6.3, <= 6.3.11>= 6.5.0, <= 6.5.3>= 7.0, <= 7.2.1CVSS 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
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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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Locate Movable Type version fileFind the VERSION file in the Movable Type installation directory, or look for version information in the admin dashboard under 'System Overview' or 'About Movable Type'Affected if The version displayed is within any of these ranges: <= 1.29, >= 6.3 and <= 6.3.11, >= 6.5.0 and <= 6.5.3, or >= 7.0 and <= 7.2.1
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Compare installed version to affected rangesRead the version number from the VERSION file or admin interface and compare it against the four affected version ranges providedAffected if The installed version matches any of the vulnerable version ranges listed in the CVE
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Verify admin interface accessibilityConfirm that the Movable Type admin panel (typically at /mt/ or /cgi-bin/mt/) is accessible over the networkAffected if The admin interface is exposed and users are logged in, allowing CSRF attacks to target authenticated sessions
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Check for CSRF token presence in admin formsInspect the HTML source of admin forms (such as those for user management, settings, or content editing) to see if they include anti-CSRF tokens or validation tokensAffected if Admin forms lack CSRF protection tokens and the installed version falls within the affected ranges
A user is affected if their Movable Type installation version falls within any of the vulnerable ranges AND the admin interface is accessible to authenticated administrators who could be tricked into submitting malicious requests.
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 patches for affected Movable Type versions (7.2.1 and earlier, 6.5.3 and earlier, 6.3.11 and earlier, Premium 1.29 and earlier). Implement anti-CSRF tokens on administrative forms and validate origin/referer headers.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-5576 — 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-2020-5576 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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