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ExploitedIn CISA KEVFix available

CVE-2020-5741

Exploitation confirmed. First attested on 2023-03-10 by CISA-ADP, CISA KEV, GCVE · kevintel.

  • Published2020-05-08
  • Fixed in1.19.3
  • WeaknessCWE-502

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

Deserialization of Untrusted Data in Plex Media Server on Windows allows a remote, authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary Python code.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2020-05-0813:15CVE publishedNVD
  2. 2023-03-10Added to the CISA KEV catalogCISA KEV
  3. 2023-03-10Listed as exploited by GCVEGCVE
  4. 2023-03-10Exploitation first reportedCISA KEV
  5. 2025-02-0620:28SSVC exploitation set to activeCISA-ADP

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-11-03 21:37 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-2020-5741?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-5741?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD
Plex media serverversion to verify
BranchAffectedFixed in
1.19< 1.19.31.19.3

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

Products declared by the CNA1 product

As tenable, the CNA that assigned this CVE, declared them in the CVE record; versions as written.

  • Plex Media Server (Windows)
    Affected
    • = Versions prior to 1.19.3no fix stated

Source: the CNA record (CVE Program), © The MITRE Corporation,CVE Terms of UseCVE recordupdated 2020-07-17

Fix

  1. Update Plex media server to 1.19.3
  2. CISA’s required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.due 2023-03-31

Detection

read 2026-11-03 22:42 UTC
Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
1 repository, unverifiedHORKimhab/CVE-2025-34158-CVE-2020-5741
PoC-in-GitHub
Metasploit modules
1 moduleexploit/windows/http/plex_unpickle_dict_rcerank: normalModule metadata: Metasploit Framework, © Rapid7, Inc., BSD-3-Clause.
Metasploit Framework

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerability

Date Added
2023-03-10
Patch Due Date
2023-03-31
Ransomware Use
Unknown
Required Action
Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2020-05-08
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Analyzed
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-53fh-qcq6-xwhv

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-5741?

Deserialization of Untrusted Data in Plex Media Server on Windows allows a remote, authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary Python code.

Is CVE-2020-5741 actively exploited?

Yes. CVE-2020-5741 is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, meaning it has been confirmed as actively exploited in the wild. CISA requires federal agencies to patch by 2023-03-31.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2020-5741?

CVE-2020-5741 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.2 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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