ID

VAR-202007-1394

CVE

CVE-2020-5903

TITLE

F5 BIG-IP contains multiple vulnerabilities including unauthenticated remote command execution

DESCRIPTION

In BIG-IP versions 15.0.0-15.1.0.3, 14.1.0-14.1.2.5, 13.1.0-13.1.3.3, 12.1.0-12.1.5.1, a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability exists in an undisclosed page of the BIG-IP Configuration utility. F5 BIG-IP provides a Traffic Management User Interface (TMUI), also referred to as the Configuration utility, that has multiple vulnerabilities including a remotely exploitable command injection vulnerability that can be used to execute arbitrary commands and subsequently take control of a vulnerable system. F5 BIG-IP devices provide load-balancing capability to application services such as HTTP and DNS. The F5 BIG-IP TMUI management web interface improperly neutralizes untrusted user input and can be abused by unauthenticated remote attackers to perform malicious activities such as cross-site scripting (XSS), cross-site request forgery (CSRF), and command injection CWE-74. F5 has also announced that BIG-IP devices do not properly enforce access controls to sensitive configuration files that be read and overwritten by an authenticated user via Secure Copy (SCP). The vulnerability identified by CVE-2020-0592 can be abused to achieve arbitrary code execution on the target device with root privileges. Underlying causes and factors in these vulnerabilities include: Improper configuration and a lack of identify checks, see recent article from NCC Group. Understanding the root cause of F5 Networks K52145254: TMUI RCE vulnerability CVE-2020-5902 The TMUI fails to enforce proper authentication and authorization, see OWASP Recommendations The TMUI web interface does not normalize user's input to prevent both XSS and CSRF, allowing a "Deadly Combinations of XSS and CSRF" Lack of role-based access checks allows for for unexpected file access, see Role-Based Access Control Models F5 recommends that the TMUI web interface should be accessible only from a secure or an out-of-band network and not directly from the Internet (K13092). However, many installations, as observed by Bad Packets, do not seem to follow this recommendation. An unauthenticated attacker with network access to the TMUI may be able to execute arbitrary system commands, create or delete files, disable services, and subsequently execute arbitrary code with high privileges such as root. An authenticated user is also be able to perform unexpected activities such as changing configuration files on a vulnerable device. BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) , BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) , BIG-IP Analytics etc. F5 BIG-IP is an application delivery platform integrated with network traffic management, application security management, load balancing and other functions of the US company F5. The following products and versions are affected: F5 BIG-IP 15.0.0 to 15.1.0, 14.1.0 to 14.1.2, 13.1.0 to 13.1.3, 12.1.0 to 12.1.5

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

CVSS

PROBLEMTYPE DATA

THREAT TYPE

remote

TYPE

XSS

PATCH

EXTERNAL IDS

REFERENCES

CREDITS

Several of these vulnerabilities were reported by Mikhail Klyuchnikov of Positive Technologies, who worked with F5 on a coordinated disclosure. This document was written by Vijay Sarvepalli.

SOURCES

LAST UPDATE DATE

2026-06-19T22:20:18.127000+00:00

SOURCES UPDATE DATE

SOURCES RELEASE DATE