CVE-2020-36167

Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2021-01-06 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-434

Description

An issue was discovered in the server in Veritas Backup Exec through 16.2, 20.6 before hotfix 298543, and 21.1 before hotfix 657517. On start-up, it loads the OpenSSL library from the Installation folder. This library in turn attempts to load the /usr/local/ssl/openssl.cnf configuration file, which may not exist. On Windows systems, this path could translate to <drive>:\usr\local\ssl\openssl.cnf. A low privileged user can create a :\usr\local\ssl\openssl.cnf configuration file to load a malicious OpenSSL engine, resulting in arbitrary code execution as SYSTEM when the service starts. This gives the attacker administrator access on the system, allowing the attacker (by default) to access all data, access all installed applications, etc. If the system is also an Active Directory domain controller, then this can affect the entire domain.

Affected products

Veritas Backup Exec: from 20.0 before 20.0.1188.2734; from 21.0 before 21.0.1200.1217 — fixed in 20.0.1188.2734, 21.0.1200.1217

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Veritas Backup Exec 20.0.1188.2734, 21.0.1200.1217. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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