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CVE-2020-17496

98
FAUCET Score

CVE-2020-17496 is a critical remote command execution (RCE) vulnerability affecting vBulletin versions 5.5.4 through 5.6.2, stemming from an incomplete fix for CVE-2019-16759. This flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary commands by crafting specific subWidgets data within an ajax/render/widget_tabbedcontainer_tab_panel request. With a CVSS score of 9.8 (Critical) and a FAUCET Risk Score of 100/100, it poses a severe risk due to its network-based attack vector, low complexity, and complete compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The vulnerability is actively exploited in the wild, with readily available Metasploit modules and Nuclei templates, and has garnered significant community discussion and media coverage, including its use by the Gitpaste-12 worm botnet.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
>= 5.5.4, <= 5.6.2CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:vbulletin:vbulletin:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

9.8CRITICAL

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

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
3.9
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
87.74%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
99.7%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
Added to KEV · Nov 3, 2021
Metasploit: vBulletin 5.x /ajax/render/widget_tabbedcontainer_tab_panel PHP remote code execution. · Aug 9, 2020
Nuclei: CVE-2020-17496 · Feb 25, 2021
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.8774 is in the 99th percentile among its peer group of 36,862 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.3 Bluesky, 0.3 Mastodon, and 2.4 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Remediation records are not available for this CVE.

References

cisa.gov / known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog
US Government Resource
blog.exploitee.rs / 2020/exploiting-vbulletin-a-tale-of-patch-fail
ExploitThird Party Advisory
cwe.mitre.org / data/definitions/78.html
Technical Description
forum.vbulletin.com / forum/vbulletin-announcements/vbulletin-announcements_aa/4445227-vbulletin-5-6-0-5-6-1-5-6-2-security-patch
PatchVendor Advisory
seclists.org / fulldisclosure/2020/Aug/5
ExploitMailing ListThird Party Advisory