CVE-2024-20999
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 · uneditedVulnerability in the Oracle Solaris product of Oracle Systems (component: Zones). The supported version that is affected is 11. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows high privileged attacker with logon to the infrastructure where Oracle Solaris executes to compromise Oracle Solaris. While the vulnerability is in Oracle Solaris, attacks may significantly impact additional products (scope change). Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in takeover of Oracle Solaris. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 8.2 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).
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 confidenceThis is a local privilege escalation vulnerability in Oracle Solaris 11's Zones component. A high-privileged attacker with local access can exploit this to gain full takeover of the Solaris system, potentially affecting additional products due to scope change. The attack vector is local with high privileges required, but results in complete confidentiality, integrity, and availability compromise.
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= 11CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/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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Identify the Oracle Solaris versionRun 'uname -r' or 'cat /etc/release' to determine the exact Oracle Solaris 11 version installedAffected if The version reported is Oracle Solaris 11 (exact match)
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Verify Zones are configuredRun 'zoneadm list -vc' to list all configured zones on the systemAffected if Any non-global zones are listed as configured or running
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Check current user privilege levelRun 'id' or 'whoami' to determine the current user's privilege level, then check if they have high privileges (such as zone admin rights) but not full rootAffected if The user has elevated privileges within a zone but does not have full root access to the global zone
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Inspect zone isolation configurationExamine zone configuration with 'zonecfg -z <zonename> info' to verify zone boundaries and privilege settingsAffected if Zones are configured with settings that allow privilege escalation to the global zone
A system is affected if it is running Oracle Solaris 11 with Zones configured and the potential attacker already has high local privileges but not full system control.
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 dataApply the Oracle Critical Patch Update for CVE-2024-20999 to Oracle Solaris 11. Prioritize patching systems with production Zones configurations and verify zone isolation remains intact after patching.
- Consultation6.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $8,448.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-20999 — 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-2024-20999 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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