CVE-2020-8581
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 · uneditedClustered Data ONTAP versions prior to 9.3P20 and 9.5 are susceptible to a vulnerability which could allow an authenticated but unauthorized attacker to overwrite arbitrary data when VMware vStorage support is enabled.
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 confidenceClustered Data ONTAP versions prior to 9.3P20 and 9.5 contain a vulnerability in the VMware vStorage support feature that allows an authenticated attacker to overwrite arbitrary data on the storage system, despite lacking proper authorization for this operation.
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< 9.3>= 9.4, <= 9.5= 9.3CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/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 the installed productRun 'system node show' or check the system ontap version command output to confirm you are running Clustered Data ONTAPAffected if The product is not Clustered Data ONTAP (this CVE does not apply to other NetApp products)
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Check the Clustered Data ONTAP versionRun 'version' or 'system ontap version' command to retrieve the exact installed version numberAffected if The installed version is 9.3 (any patch before P20), 9.4, or 9.5 (any version before the security patch), or any version below 9.3
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Verify VMware vStorage support statusRun 'vserver nvme namespace' or check the VMware vStorage configuration via 'vserver show -fields nvme' to see if vStorage is enabled; also check with 'options vstorage' or consult the SVM configurationAffected if VMware vStorage support is enabled on the storage virtual machine (SVM)
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Confirm authentication methodReview access control settings and user accounts with 'security login show' to determine if external authentication (such as Active Directory or LDAP) is configured for SVM accessAffected if SVM has authenticated users or domain users configured, allowing remote access to the vStorage feature
You are affected if you are running Clustered Data ONTAP versions 9.3 through 9.5 with VMware vStorage support enabled and have authenticated users who could exploit this authorization bypass.
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 data9.3
Upgrade Clustered Data ONTAP to version 9.3P20, 9.5, or later. If immediate patching is not possible, consider disabling VMware vStorage support if not required in the environment.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-8581 — 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-2020-8581 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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