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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 10 Jun 2022.
Pi HoleApplication

CVE-2020-8816

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-05-29
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 4.3.2 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild High EPSS Public exploit Remotely reachable Zero-click Patch available

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 · unedited
Pi-hole Web v4.3.2 (aka AdminLTE) allows Remote Code Execution by privileged dashboard users via a crafted DHCP static lease.

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 confidence

Pi-hole AdminLTE v4.3.2 contains an authenticated RCE vulnerability in the DHCP static lease creation feature. Privileged dashboard users can inject and execute arbitrary shell commands through crafted static lease entries due to insufficient input sanitization.

MitigationRestrict dashboard access to trusted administrators only. Apply the vendor patch (v4.3.2+) which adds proper input validation/sanitization to DHCP static lease parameters.

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
Pi HoleApplication
Affected:<= 4.3.2

CVSS 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
High
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Pi-hole AdminLTE version
    Navigate to the web dashboard (usually http://<pi-hole-ip>/admin) and check the version displayed in the footer, or run command: `pihole -v` or check the file `/etc/pihole/versions`
    Affected if Version displayed is 4.3.2 or lower (e.g., 4.3.1, 4.3.0, etc.)
  2. Verify DHCP server is enabled
    In the web dashboard, go to DHCP > DHCP Settings and check if the DHCP server is turned on, or inspect the config file at `/etc/pihole/dhcp.conf`
    Affected if DHCP server is enabled and active
  3. Confirm static lease functionality is accessible
    In the web dashboard, navigate to DHCP > Static DHCP Leases and verify the interface to add new static leases is present
    Affected if Static lease creation interface is available and functional
  4. Check for existing privileged dashboard users
    In the web dashboard, go to Settings > Users or Authentication to list users with dashboard access, or check `/etc/pihole/setupVars.conf` for web password configuration
    Affected if Any user account has dashboard administrative privileges

You are affected if Pi-hole AdminLTE version is 4.3.2 or lower, the DHCP server is enabled, and a privileged user can access the static lease creation feature.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 4.3.2
Vendor patch github.com →
Interim mitigation

Restrict dashboard access to trusted administrators only. Apply the vendor patch (v4.3.2+) which adds proper input validation/sanitization to DHCP static lease parameters.

Fix this in Pi Hole Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-8816 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data