CVE-2020-8188
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 · uneditedWe have recently released new version of UniFi Protect firmware v1.13.3 and v1.14.10 for Unifi Cloud Key Gen2 Plus and UniFi Dream Machine Pro/UNVR respectively that fixes vulnerabilities found on Protect firmware v1.13.2, v1.14.9 and prior according to the description below:View only users can run certain custom commands which allows them to assign themselves unauthorized roles and escalate their privileges.
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 confidenceView-only users in UniFi Protect firmware can execute certain custom commands that allow them to assign themselves unauthorized roles, enabling privilege escalation from read-only access to administrative privileges.
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<= 1.13.2<= 1.14.9CVSS 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
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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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Check UniFi Protect firmware versionAccess the UniFi Protect controller UI, navigate to Settings > System > System Information, or run 'ubnt-upgrade info' via SSH to retrieve the firmware versionAffected if The firmware version is 1.13.2 or lower, or 1.14.9 or lower
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Identify the hardware modelCheck the physical device or UniFi Protect controller Settings > System > System Information to confirm if the device is a UniFi Cloud Key Gen2 Plus, UniFi Dream Machine Pro (UDM Pro), or UniFi Network Video Recorder (UNVR)Affected if The device model matches UniFi Cloud Key Gen2 Plus, UDM Pro, or UNVR and the firmware version falls within the affected ranges
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Review existing user accountsNavigate to Settings > Users in the UniFi Protect UI to list all configured users and their assigned rolesAffected if There are one or more user accounts with 'View-Only' or 'Read-Only' role permissions present in the system
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Check for unauthorized role assignmentsAudit the user list in Settings > Users and verify that each user's role matches what was explicitly assigned; look for any view-only accounts that now have Administrator, Editor, or elevated permissionsAffected if Any user account that was originally configured as view-only now has administrative or elevated privileges
You are affected if your UniFi Protect firmware version is 1.13.2 or lower (Cloud Key Gen2 Plus) or 1.14.9 or lower (UDM Pro/UNVR) and there are view-only user accounts present in the system.
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 UniFi Protect firmware to v1.13.3 (Unifi Cloud Key Gen2 Plus) or v1.14.10 (UniFi Dream Machine Pro/UNVR) or later versions.
- 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-2020-8188 — 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-2020-8188 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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