Privilege Escalation in systemd (CVE-2020-13776)
Summary
Vulnerability in systemd (CVE-2020-13776). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
systemd through v245 mishandles numerical usernames such as ones composed of decimal digits or 0x followed by hex digits, as demonstrated by use of root privileges when privileges of the 0x0 user account were intended. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2017-1000082.
Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) NVD GitHub Advisory OSV
Auto-generated summary
Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.
A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2020-13776 has been found in systemd.
Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. CVSS score: 6.7/10.
What to do: apply the vendor's official patched release.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "systemd CVE-2020-13776" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2020-13776 (systemd) — CWE-269 / CVSS v3 6.7
Attack vector: local
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.
A vulnerability (CWE-269) exists in systemd.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of systemd.
Severity: Medium (CVSS 6.7/10). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
Update to the patched release per vendor advisory.
Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.
Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'systemd' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.
Response actions
Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order
-
1Identify exposure identify
grep -r 'systemd' . | grep -v node_modulesリポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で
systemdを grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。 -
2Post-deployment verification verify
Confirm patched version is live in productionパッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。
Fix status by distribution
Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE
- Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2020-13776 systemd Fixed in: 246-2
- Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2020-13776 systemd
References
- advisory security.netapp.com
- web lists.fedoraproject.org
- web github.com
- web cert-portal.siemens.com
- web nvd.nist.gov
- web lists.fedoraproject.org
- web lists.fedoraproject.org
- web security.netapp.com
- web github.com