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CVE-2020-17496

vBulletin 5.5.4 through 5.6.2 allows remote command execution via crafted subWidgets data in an ajax/render/widget_tabbedcontainer_tab_panel...

Basic Information

CVE State
PUBLISHED
Reserved Date
August 12, 2020
Published Date
August 12, 2020
Last Updated
October 21, 2025
Vendor
vBulletin
Product
vBulletin
Description
vBulletin 5.5.4 through 5.6.2 allows remote command execution via crafted subWidgets data in an ajax/render/widget_tabbedcontainer_tab_panel request. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2019-16759.
Tags
cisa nuclei_scanner metasploit

CVSS Scores

CVSS v3.1

9.8 - CRITICAL

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v2.0

7.5

Vector: AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

SSVC Information

Exploitation
active
Automatable
Yes
Technical Impact
total

Exploit Status

Exploited in the Wild
Yes (2021-11-03 00:00:00 UTC) Source

References

https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/78.html https://blog.exploitee.rs/2020/exploiting-vbulletin-a-tale-of-patch-fail/ https://forum.vbulletin.com/forum/vbulletin-announcements/vbulletin-announcements_aa/4445227-vbulletin-5-6-0-5-6-1-5-6-2-security-patch https://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/Aug/5

Known Exploited Vulnerability Information

Source Added Date
CISA 2021-11-03 00:00:00 UTC
CISA 2021-11-03 00:00:00 UTC

Scanner Integrations

Scanner URL Date Detected
Metasploit https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/exploits/multi/http/vbulletin_widget_template_rce.rb 2025-04-28 15:02:25 UTC
Nuclei https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2020/CVE-2020-17496.yaml 2025-04-25 00:00:00 UTC

Potential Proof of Concepts

Warning: These PoCs have not been tested and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

vbulletin_widget_template_rce

Type: metasploit • Created: Unknown

Metasploit module for CVE-2020-17496

ctlyz123/CVE-2020-17496

Type: github • Created: 2020-08-20 12:20:03 UTC • Stars: 1

Timeline

  • CVE ID Reserved

  • CVE Published to Public

  • Added to KEVIntel

  • Added to KEVIntel

  • Detected by Nuclei

  • Detected by Metasploit