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Fencer Intel
medium 5.5

CVE-2020-15704 json

pppd arbitrary file read information disclosure vulnerability

published 6y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2020-7690

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 30%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The modprobe child process in the ./debian/patches/load_ppp_generic_if_needed patch file incorrectly handled module loading. A local non-root attacker could exploit the MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment variable to read arbitrary root files. Fixed in 2.4.5-5ubuntu1.4, 2.4.5-5.1ubuntu2.3+esm2, 2.4.7-1+2ubuntu1.16.04.3, 2.4.7-2+2ubuntu1.3, 2.4.7-2+4.1ubuntu5.1, 2.4.7-2+4.1ubuntu6. Was ZDI-CAN-11504.

Patch / fix

  • Canonical ppp 2.4.5-5.1ubuntu2.3+esm2, 2.4.5-5ubuntu1.4, 2.4.7-1+2ubuntu1.16.04.3, 2.4.7-2+2ubuntu1.3, 2.4.7-2+4.1ubuntu5.1, 2.4.7-2+4.1ubuntu6
  • ppp Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 2.4.7-1+2ubuntu1.16.04.3
  • ppp Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 2.4.7-2+2ubuntu1.3
  • ppp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 2.4.7-2+4.1ubuntu5.1
  • ppp Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 2.4.5-5.1ubuntu2.3+esm2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2020-15704

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2020-15704 updated cvss 0.0

ppp: Privilege escalation through loading of arbitrary kernel modules and other programs

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 ppp Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 ppp Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 ppp Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 ppp, network-scripts-ppp
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.36% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 30% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 2.0 2.1 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Affected products

  • Canonical ppp

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-200 Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.