CVE-2020-13946

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.9 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 3.0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2020-09-01 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-668

Description

In Apache Cassandra, all versions prior to 2.1.22, 2.2.18, 3.0.22, 3.11.8 and 4.0-beta2, it is possible for a local attacker without access to the Apache Cassandra process or configuration files to manipulate the RMI registry to perform a man-in-the-middle attack and capture user names and passwords used to access the JMX interface. The attacker can then use these credentials to access the JMX interface and perform unauthorised operations. Users should also be aware of CVE-2019-2684, a JRE vulnerability that enables this issue to be exploited remotely.

Affected products

Apache Software Foundation Apache Cassandra: before 2.1.22; from 2.2.0 before 2.2.18; from 3.0.0 before 3.0.22; from 3.11.0 before 3.11.8; 4.0.0-alpha1, 4.0.0-alpha2, 4.0.0-alpha3, 4.0.0-alpha4, 4.0.0-beta1 — fixed in 2.1.22, 2.2.18, 3.0.22, 3.11.8
OnCommand Insight: all versions

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Apache Software Foundation Apache Cassandra 2.1.22, 2.2.18, 3.0.22, 3.11.8. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

Get alerted when CVE-2020-13946 or the next vulnerability affects your stack