CVE-2020-5820
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 · uneditedSymantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) and Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition (SEP SBE), prior to 14.2 RU2 MP1 and prior to 14.2.5569.2100 respectively, may be susceptible to a privilege escalation vulnerability, which is a type of issue whereby an attacker may attempt to compromise the software application to gain elevated access to resources that are normally protected from an application or user.
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 confidenceSymantec Endpoint Protection prior to version 14.2 RU2 MP1 (and SEP SBE prior to 14.2.5569.2100) contains a privilege escalation vulnerability that allows an attacker to gain elevated access to resources normally protected from standard users. The specific attack vector and vulnerable component are not detailed in available documentation.
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= 11.0= 12.1= 14.0.0= 14.0.1= 14.2= 12.0CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/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 Symantec Endpoint Protection versionOpen the Symantec Endpoint Protection client interface and look for the version number displayed in the About or Help section, or check the program's properties (right-click the executable > Properties > Details > Version).Affected if The displayed version matches any of the affected versions: 11.0, 12.0, 12.1, 14.0.0, 14.0.1, or 14.2.
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Confirm version is SEP SBE variantCheck if the installation is the Small Business Edition (SBE) variant by looking at the product name in Add/Remove Programs or the client interface.Affected if The product is identified as SEP SBE and the version is below 14.2.5569.2100.
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Verify patch level for standard SEPFor standard Symantec Endpoint Protection version 14.2, verify the exact build number and whether Remote Update 2 (RU2) and Maintenance Patch 1 (MP1) are applied.Affected if The version is 14.2 without RU2 MP1 applied (version shows 14.2.xxxx.xxxx where xxxx is less than the RU2 MP1 build).
A user is affected if their installed version is 11.0, 12.0, 12.1, 14.0.0, 14.0.1, or 14.2 without the RU2 MP1 patch (or below 14.2.5569.2100 for SEP SBE).
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 dataUpgrade Symantec Endpoint Protection to version 14.2 RU2 MP1 or later (14.2.5569.2100 or later for SEP SBE) to address this vulnerability.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,152.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-5820 — 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-2020-5820 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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