CVE-2020-5822
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 confidenceThis is a privilege escalation vulnerability in Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) and SEP Small Business Edition (SEP SBE). An attacker with local access to a system running vulnerable versions of SEP could potentially elevate their privileges to gain higher access rights. The vulnerability affects versions prior to 14.2 RU2 MP1 for SEP and prior to 14.2.5569.2100 for SEP SBE.
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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Confirm SEP installationCheck if Symantec Endpoint Protection client is installed. Look in Add/Remove Programs, or check for installation directories such as C:\Program Files\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection or C:\Program Files\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition.Affected if Symantec Endpoint Protection or SEP Small Business Edition is installed on the system
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Retrieve installed SEP versionOpen the SEP client interface and navigate to Help > About, or run 'smc -version' from the command line in the installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection\Client) to obtain the exact version number.Affected if The version displayed is 14.2 RU2 MP1 or earlier for SEP, or 14.2.5569.2100 or earlier for SEP SBE
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Verify SEP service is runningOpen Services console (services.msc) and locate the 'Symantec Endpoint Protection' service (sepWsc, smc, or Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager). Check if it is in a running state.Affected if The SEP service is running (the vulnerability requires the vulnerable software to be active)
A system is affected if Symantec Endpoint Protection or SEP Small Business Edition is installed and running with a version number equal to or lower than 14.2 RU2 MP1 (for SEP) or 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 to Symantec Endpoint Protection 14.2 RU2 MP1 or later (14.2.5569.2100 or later for SEP SBE) to remediate this vulnerability.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-5822 — 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-2020-5822 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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