CVE-2020-7196
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 · uneditedThe HPE BlueData EPIC Software Platform version 4.0 and HPE Ezmeral Container Platform 5.0 use an insecure method of handling sensitive Kerberos passwords that is susceptible to unauthorized interception and/or retrieval. Specifically, they display the kdc_admin_password in the source file of the url "/bdswebui/assignusers/".
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 confidenceThe HPE BlueData EPIC Software Platform 4.0 and HPE Ezmeral Container Platform 5.0 contain a sensitive information disclosure vulnerability where the Kerberos administrator password (kdc_admin_password) is exposed in the client-side source code of the '/bdswebui/assignusers/' web UI endpoint. This allows an attacker with network access to retrieve the plaintext Kerberos admin credentials from the browser or intercepted HTTP responses.
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<= 4.0= 5.0CVSS 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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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 installed product and versionAccess the web UI or check system documentation to confirm whether HPE BlueData EPIC Software Platform or HPE Ezmeral Container Platform is deployed, and note the exact version numberAffected if The product is HPE BlueData EPIC version 4.0 or lower, or HPE Ezmeral Container Platform version 5.0
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Confirm web UI accessibilityAttempt to access the /bdswebui/assignusers/ endpoint via browser or HTTP tool (such as curl) on the system where the product is runningAffected if The endpoint returns an HTTP 200 response and is accessible over the network
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Inspect HTTP response for exposed credentialsUse browser developer tools (Network tab) or an HTTP interception tool to capture the full response from /bdswebui/assignusers/ and search within the response body for the string 'kdc_admin_password'Affected if The response contains 'kdc_admin_password' with a plaintext value (visible as a string literal in the client-side source code)
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Verify credential exposure in sourceView the page source or response body directly and search for any Kerberos-related configuration values being transmitted to the client-sideAffected if Sensitive Kerberos configuration values, particularly the administrator password, appear in plaintext within the returned HTML or JavaScript
A user is affected if they are running the specified product versions and the /bdswebui/assignusers/ endpoint returns the kdc_admin_password in plaintext within the HTTP response body.
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 dataImmediately rotate the exposed kdc_admin_password and any related Kerberos credentials. Remove the credential from being transmitted to the frontend by refactoring server-side code to not expose sensitive Kerberos configuration values to the web UI. Apply any HPE-supplied patches for these products.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-7196 — 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-2020-7196 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
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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