CVE-2020-14871

CRITICAL KEV

Oracle Solaris 10-11 - Privilege Escalation

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Exploitation Summary

CVE-2020-14871 is actively exploited and listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, added November 3, 2021. EIP tracks 6 public exploits from researchers including Nathaniel Singer, legend, Hacker Fantastic, including a Metasploit module exploits/solaris/ssh/pam_username_bof.

AI-analyzed exploit summary This exploit leverages a pre-authentication stack-based buffer overflow in Oracle Solaris' PAM module (CVE-2020-14871) to achieve remote code execution. It uses a ROP chain to bypass memory protections and execute a reverse shell payload.

Description

Vulnerability in the Oracle Solaris product of Oracle Systems (component: Pluggable authentication module). Supported versions that are affected are 10 and 11. Easily exploitable vulnerability allows unauthenticated attacker with network access via multiple protocols to compromise Oracle Solaris. While the vulnerability is in Oracle Solaris, attacks may significantly impact additional products. Successful attacks of this vulnerability can result in takeover of Oracle Solaris. Note: This CVE is not exploitable for Solaris 11.1 and later releases, and ZFSSA 8.7 and later releases, thus the CVSS Base Score is 0.0. CVSS 3.1 Base Score 10.0 (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability impacts). CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).

Exploits (6)

exploitdb WORKING POC
by Nathaniel Singer · pythonremotesolaris
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/50039

This exploit leverages a pre-authentication stack-based buffer overflow in Oracle Solaris' PAM module (CVE-2020-14871) to achieve remote code execution. It uses a ROP chain to bypass memory protections and execute a reverse shell payload.

Classification
Working Poc 95%
Attack Type
Rce
Complexity
Complex
Reliability
Reliable
Target: Oracle Solaris 9 (some releases), 10 (all releases), 11.0
No auth needed
Prerequisites: Network access to vulnerable Solaris SSH service · Knowledge of target memory layout for ROP chain
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 16, 2026 Full analysis →
exploitdb WORKING POC
by legend · pythonremotesolaris
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/49896

This exploit targets CVE-2020-14871 in Solaris SunSSH 11.0 x86, leveraging a buffer overflow in libpam to achieve remote root access. It uses a crafted payload with a reverse shell to execute arbitrary commands on the target system.

Classification
Working Poc 95%
Attack Type
Rce
Complexity
Moderate
Reliability
Reliable
Target: Solaris SunSSH 11.0 x86
No auth needed
Prerequisites: Network access to the target system · SunSSH service running on the target
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 16, 2026 Full analysis →
exploitdb WORKING POC
by Hacker Fantastic · cremotesolaris
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/49261

This exploit targets a stack-based buffer overflow in libpam on Solaris (CVE-2020-14871), achievable remotely via SunSSH with keyboard-interactive authentication. It uses ROP gadgets to disable NX stack protections and execute a bind shell payload.

Classification
Working Poc 95%
Attack Type
Rce
Complexity
Moderate
Reliability
Reliable
Target: Solaris SunSSH 11.0 x86 (libpam)
No auth needed
Prerequisites: SunSSH with keyboard-interactive PAM authentication enabled · Network access to target
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 16, 2026 Full analysis →
nomisec WORKING POC 2 stars
by robidev · remote
https://github.com/robidev/CVE-2020-14871-Exploit

This is a functional ROP-based exploit for CVE-2020-14871, targeting a stack-based buffer overflow in the PAM parse_user_name function in Solaris systems. It leverages SSH Keyboard-Interactive authentication to trigger the overflow and execute arbitrary commands, including a Python-based reverse shell.

Classification
Working Poc 95%
Attack Type
Rce
Complexity
Moderate
Reliability
Reliable
Target: Sun Solaris (tested on Solaris 10)
No auth needed
Prerequisites: SSH access to the target system · Python environment for payload generation · Network connectivity for reverse shell
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 16, 2026 Full analysis →
nomisec SCANNER
by FromPartsUnknown · dos
https://github.com/FromPartsUnknown/EvilSunCheck

This repository contains a Python script that checks for the presence of CVE-2020-14871, a buffer overflow vulnerability in Solaris PAM `pam_unix_auth` during SSH keyboard-interactive authentication. It sends a long string to trigger the vulnerability and detects if the system is vulnerable based on the response.

Classification
Scanner 95%
Attack Type
Dos
Complexity
Trivial
Reliability
Reliable
Target: Solaris 9, 10 (Sun SSHd with PAMAuthenticationViaKBDInt enabled)
No auth needed
Prerequisites: Network access to the target SSH service · Paramiko library installed
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 16, 2026 Full analysis →
metasploit WORKING POC NORMAL
by Jacob Thompson, Aaron Carreras, Jeffrey Martin, Hacker Fantastic, wvu · rubypocunix
https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/exploits/solaris/ssh/pam_username_bof.rb

This Metasploit module exploits a stack-based buffer overflow in Oracle Solaris SunSSH PAM's username parsing during keyboard-interactive authentication. It uses a ret2libc technique to achieve remote code execution by overflowing the buffer with a crafted payload.

Classification
Working Poc 100%
Attack Type
Rce
Complexity
Moderate
Reliability
Reliable
Target: Oracle Solaris SunSSH 1.1.5 (PAM library)
No auth needed
Prerequisites: Network access to SunSSH service · Target running vulnerable Solaris version
devstral-2 · analyzed Feb 16, 2026 Full analysis →

Scores

CVSS v3 10.0
EPSS 0.8887
EPSS Percentile 99.5%
Attack Vector NETWORK
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

CISA SSVC

Vulnrichment
Exploitation active
Automatable no
Technical Impact total

Details

CISA KEV 2021-11-03
VulnCheck KEV 2020-09-04
InTheWild.io 2021-07-23
ENISA EUVD EUVD-2020-7007
CWE
CWE-787
Status published
Products (2)
oracle/solaris 9
oracle/solaris 10 - 11.1
Published Oct 21, 2020
KEV Added Nov 03, 2021
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026