CVE-2020-7905
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 · uneditedPorts listened to by JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA before 2019.3 were exposed to the network.
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 confidenceIntelliJ IDEA versions prior to 2019.3 exposed debug and internal service ports to the network interface, potentially allowing remote attackers to interact with the IDE's running services or retrieve sensitive information about the development environment.
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< 2019.3.0CVSS 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
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 IntelliJ IDEA versionOpen IntelliJ IDEA and navigate to Help > About (or on macOS IntelliJ IDEA > About IntelliJ IDEA). The version number is displayed in the dialog that appears. Alternatively, check the installation directory for version files or the product name in the installation folder.Affected if The displayed version is earlier than 2019.3.0 (e.g., 2019.2.x, 2019.1.x, 2018.x, etc.)
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Check for listening network ports associated with IDE processesRun netstat -an or ss -tulpn on the host machine and look for processes named 'idea', 'intellij', or similar running Java processes listening on TCP ports. Note the port numbers and addresses (0.0.0.0 vs 127.0.0.1).Affected if The IDE process has open TCP listeners bound to 0.0.0.0 (all interfaces) rather than only 127.0.0.1 (localhost), especially on unusual high ports often used for debug or internal services
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Verify debug port exposureRun netstat -ano | findstr LISTENING and examine any ports in the range typically used by Java debuggers (usually 5005, 5006, or high ports like 8000-9000) that are bound to 0.0.0.0 rather than localhost, and are associated with the IntelliJ Java process.Affected if A Java process from IntelliJ IDEA is listening on a debug-style port bound to all network interfaces (0.0.0.0)
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Review IDE startup configurationExamine any custom run/debug configurations saved in the IDE project (.idea/runConfigurations/*.xml) or any startup scripts that launch the IDE with debug flags (e.g., -Xdebug, -agentlib:jdwp) to see if remote debug is enabled.Affected if Debug configurations specify 'listen' or 'attach' mode with host set to '0.0.0.0' or an external IP rather than 'localhost'
A defender is affected if they are running any IntelliJ IDEA version prior to 2019.3.0 AND the IDE has network listeners bound to non-localhost interfaces, exposing debug or internal service ports to the network.
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 data2019.3.0
Upgrade IntelliJ IDEA to version 2019.3 or later; if immediate upgrade is not feasible, restrict network access to the IDE host using firewalls or network segmentation to prevent untrusted remote access to exposed ports.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-7905 — 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-2020-7905 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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