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No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2020-1959

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

  • Published2020-05-04
  • Fixed in2.1.6
  • WeaknessCWE-917

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

A Server-Side Template Injection was identified in Apache Syncope prior to 2.1.6 enabling attackers to inject arbitrary Java EL expressions, leading to an unauthenticated Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability. Apache Syncope uses Java Bean Validation (JSR 380) custom constraint validators. When building custom constraint violation error messages, they support different types of interpolation, including Java EL expressions. Therefore, if an attacker can inject arbitrary data in the error message template being passed, they will be able to run arbitrary Java code.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2020-05-0413:15CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 18:48 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-1959?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-1959?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD
Apache syncope
BranchAffectedFixed in
2.1≥ 2.1.0, < 2.1.62.1.6

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Fix

  1. Update Apache syncope to 2.1.6

Advisories and patches

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
none listed
PoC-in-GitHub

Sources

  • NVDCVSS 3.19.8read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 2.07.5read 2026-10-23
  • NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-917read 2026-10-23
  • FIRST EPSSEPSS score5.0 %2026-10-22

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2020-05-04
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-1959?

A Server-Side Template Injection was identified in Apache Syncope prior to 2.1.6 enabling attackers to inject arbitrary Java EL expressions, leading to an unauthenticated Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability. Apache Syncope uses Java Bean Validation (JSR 380) custom constraint validators. When building custom constraint violation error messages, they support different types of interpolation, including Java EL expressions. Therefore, if an attacker can inject arbitrary data in the error message template being passed, they will be able to run arbitrary Java code.

Is CVE-2020-1959 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2020-1959 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 5.0% on 2026-10-22, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2020-1959?

CVE-2020-1959 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (CRITICAL severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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