Public proof of conceptFix available

CVE-2020-8554

A public proof of concept exists; no exploitation attested.

Published2021-01-21
WeaknessCWE-283

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

Kubernetes API server in all versions allow an attacker who is able to create a ClusterIP service and set the spec.externalIPs field, to intercept traffic to that IP address. Additionally, an attacker who is able to patch the status (which is considered a privileged operation and should not typically be granted to users) of a LoadBalancer service can set the status.loadBalancer.ingress.ip to similar effect.

Timeline

dates in UTC

2021-01-2117:15CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 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-2020-8554?format=txt
CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-8554?format=csv
TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD

Kubernetes

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
—	all versions	no fix published	NVD

Oracle communications cloud native core network slice selection function

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
1.2	= 1.2.1	no fix published	NVD

Oracle communications cloud native core policy

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
1.15	= 1.15.0	no fix published	NVD

2 more products in the sources.

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

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Vendor advisories

CVE-2020-8554 Red Hat Product Security24 products fixed
kubernetes: MITM using LoadBalancer or ExternalIPs
RHSA-2021:0079 Red Hat Product Security24 products fixed
Red Hat Security Advisory: OpenShift Container Platform 3.11.374 bug fix and security update

Full record on NVD

Fix

Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2021:0079 · 24 productsSee the following documentation, which will be updated shortly for release 3.11.374, for important instructions on how to upgrade your cluster and fully apply this asynchronous errata update: https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/3.11/release_notes/ocp_3_11_release_notes.html This update …
Workaround from the vendor Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2021:0079 · 80 productsExternalIP addresses ranges can be configured as described below. OCP 4 is secure by default, though cluster-admins can whitelist externalIP addresses as needed. OCP 3.11 can be secured by changing `externalIPNetworkCIDR` to "0.0.0.0/32", which blocks all externalIP address values. https://docs.op…

Advisories and patches

Detection

read 2026-10-23 19:23 UTC

Nuclei template: none so far
Exploit-DB: no entry
Proof-of-concept repositories: 5 repositories, unverifiedrancher/externalip-webhookjrmurray000/CVE-2020-8554twistlock/k8s-cve-2020-8554-mitigationsDviejopomata/CVE-2020-8554alebedev87/gatekeeper-cve-2020-8554

Sources

CNACVSS 3.16.3read 2026-10-23
NVDCVSS 3.15read 2026-10-23
NVDCVSS 2.06read 2026-10-23
CNAweakness (CWE)CWE-283read 2026-10-23
FIRST EPSSEPSS score9.3 %2026-10-23
PoC-in-GitHubproof of concept5read 2026-10-23
OSVaffected packages—

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
Published: 2021-01-21
Last Modified: 2026-06-17
NVD status: Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-8554?

Is CVE-2020-8554 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2020-8554 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 9.3% on 2026-10-23, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2020-8554?

CVE-2020-8554 has a CVSS v3 base score of 5 (MEDIUM severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L.

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