CVE-2020-8903

7.3 HIGH 0.3% exploit odds Fix listed

What it is

A vulnerability in Google Cloud Platform's guest-oslogin versions between 20190304 and 20200507 allows a user that is only granted the role "roles/compute.osLogin" to escalate privileges to root. Using their membership to the "adm" group, users with this role are able to read the DHCP XID from the systemd journal. Using the DHCP XID, it is then possible to set the IP address and hostname of the instance to any value, which is then stored in /etc/hosts. An attacker can then point metadata.google.internal to an arbitrary IP address and impersonate the GCE metadata server which make it is possible to instruct the OS Login PAM module to grant administrative privileges. All images created after 2020-May-07 (20200507) are fixed, and if you cannot update, we recommend you edit /etc/group/security.conf and remove the "adm" user from the OS Login entry.

At a glance

Exploitability: Can be exploited locally on the machine with a low-privilege account, but needs a user to act. High risk of data exposure, data tampering, service disruption.
Exploit odds: 0.3% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days (EPSS).
Fix: A patch, advisory or fixed version is referenced. Upgrade or apply it.

Timeline

2020-06-22 14:15 UTC PublishedDisclosed publicly on CVE.org and NVD
2026-06-17 03:27 UTC Last updatedMost recent change to the record

Why it ranks here

Exploited in the wild: no, CISA does not list it.
Exploit odds: 0.3% in the next 30 days (EPSS).
Severity: 7.3 HIGH (CVSS).
Fix: a patch or advisory is linked.

Details

Published: 2020-06-22 14:15 UTC
Last modified: 2026-06-17 03:27 UTC
Exploit probability: 0.3% · EPSS, next 30 days
Weakness: CWE-276 · Incorrect default permissions
Record status: Modified

Affected

Google guest-oslogin ≤ 20200507.00
Opensuse Leap 15.1
Opensuse Leap 15.2

Attack profile CVSS 4.0 · 7.3

Attack vector: Local
Complexity: High
Attack requirements: None
Privileges needed: Low
User interaction: Active
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: High

Raw vector

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Is it in your code?

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Fix and advisories

References

NVD record · CVE.org record