Predictive Vulnerability Intelligence.

Product

  • Product
  • Pricing
  • Documentation

Company

  • About
  • Partnerships
  • Blog
  • Support

Legal

  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Data Licensing

© 2026 FAUCET Technologies LLC. All rights reserved.

CVE-2020-17516

20
FAUCET Score

CVE-2020-17516 affects Apache Cassandra versions 2.1.0 through 3.11.9 when configured for 'dc' or 'rack' internode encryption. This vulnerability allows both encrypted and unencrypted internode connections, enabling a misconfigured node or malicious actor to bypass mutual TLS and establish unencrypted communication. Rated 7.5 HIGH on CVSS, it carries a high impact on confidentiality (C:H) due to unauthorized access to sensitive data, with a low attack complexity (AC:L) and no user interaction required (UI:N). There is currently no evidence of active exploitation, public exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), or significant community discussion or media coverage surrounding this vulnerability.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
>= 2.1.0, <= 2.1.22CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:apache:cassandra:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
>= 2.2.0, <= 2.2.19CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:apache:cassandra:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
>= 3.0.0, <= 3.0.23CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:apache:cassandra:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
>= 3.11.0, <= 3.11.9CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:apache:cassandra:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

7.5HIGH

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

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
NONE
Availability Impact
NONE
Exploitability Score
3.9
Impact Score
3.6
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
1.93%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
77.9%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-28
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0193 is in the 61st percentile among its peer group of 51,553 CVEs.

Social Chatter

No social media mentions found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.0 Reddit, 0.1 Bluesky, 0.1 Mastodon, and 0.4 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.1 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (2)

mavenpatch availablevia ghsa
Product: org.apache.cassandra:cassandra-allFixed in: 3.0.24
mavenpatch availablevia ghsa
Product: org.apache.cassandra:cassandra-allFixed in: 3.11.10

Vendor Advisories (2)

mavenGHSA-2vxm-vp4c-fjfwhigh

Authentication Bypass in Apache Cassandra

Feb 9, 2022
redhatCVE-2020-17516Moderate

cassandra: internode encryption enforcement vulnerability

Feb 2, 2021

References

mail-archives.apache.org / mod_mbox/cassandra-user/202102.mbox/%3c6E4340A5-D7BE-4D33-9EC5-3B505A626D8D%40apache.org%3e
lists.apache.org / thread.html/r81243a412a37a22211754936a13856af07cc68a93d728c52807486e9%40%3Ccommits.cassandra.apache.org%3E
lists.apache.org / thread.html/rcb16f36cafa184dd159e94033f87d0fc274c4752d467f3a09f2ceae4%40%3Ccommits.cassandra.apache.org%3E
lists.apache.org / thread.html/rd84bec24907617bdb72f7ec907cd7437a0fd5a8886eb55aa84dd1eb8%40%3Ccommits.cassandra.apache.org%3E
security.netapp.com / advisory/ntap-20210521-0002
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory