dbcve.org
Portal For ArcgisApplication · Esri

CVE-2026-13020

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Developing Published 2026-07-07
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 12.1 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click 7 weeks old

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
A Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password exists in Esri Portal for ArcGIS versions 12.1 and earlier on Windows, Linux and Kubernetes. A remote, unauthorized attacker may assume ownership of a user’s account by manipulating this mechanism. ArcGIS Administrators should configure an email server with ArcGIS Enterprise to facilitate user self-service password recovery. The ability for an administrator to reset a user’s password remains unchanged.

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 · low confidence
Developing — this CVE was published recently and its authoritative NVD entry is still being established, so we're holding a technical summary until the source data settles rather than publish something unreliable. Re-checking after 2026-08-04.

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
Portal For ArcgisApplication
Affected:<= 12.1

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 12.1
Recommended fix Moderate confidence
  1. 1. Sign in to the ArcGIS Portal Directory as an administrator (default URL: https://portalhostname:7443/arcgis/portaladmin).
  2. 2. Navigate to Security > Email Configuration > Update Email Settings.
  3. 3. Configure a valid SMTP email server to enable secure password recovery mechanisms.
  4. 4. Specify the email settings including: SMTP server address, port number, encryption method (SSL/TLS), and authentication credentials if required.
  5. 5. Configure the 'Email Address' field with a valid sender address for password reset emails.
  6. 6. Save the email configuration settings.
  7. 7. Verify that the password recovery flow now uses the configured email server instead of the vulnerable mechanism.
  8. 8. Additionally, ensure that account lockout policies and multi-factor authentication are enabled under Security > Authentication > Lockout Settings to further mitigate unauthorized account takeover attempts.

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

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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-2026-13020 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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