An issue was discovered in the server in Veritas Backup Exec through 16.2, 20.6 before hotfix 298543, and 21.1 before hotfix 657517.

published 2021-01-06 5 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2020-23745

cvss: 9.3; version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.5%; EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 41%
public exploits: 0; none known

An issue was discovered in the server in Veritas Backup Exec through 16.2, 20.6 before hotfix 298543, and 21.1 before hotfix 657517. On start-up, it loads the OpenSSL library from the Installation folder. This library in turn attempts to load the /usr/local/ssl/openssl.cnf configuration file, which may not exist. On Windows systems, this path could translate to <drive>:\usr\local\ssl\openssl.cnf. A low privileged user can create a :\usr\local\ssl\openssl.cnf configuration file to load a malicious OpenSSL engine, resulting in arbitrary code execution as SYSTEM when the service starts. This gives the attacker administrator access on the system, allowing the attacker (by default) to access all data, access all installed applications, etc. If the system is also an Active Directory domain controller, then this can affect the entire domain.

Patch / fix

fixed in 1

veritas backup_exec 20.0.1188.2734, 21.0.1200.1217

Exploit prediction

0.48% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 41% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
CNA	3.1	9.3	CVSS:3.1/AC:L/AV:L/A:H/C:H/I:H/PR:N/S:C/UI:N
CNA	3.1	9.3	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	3.1	8.8	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD	2.0	7.2	AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness

CWE-434 Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type

References

veritas.com /content/support/en_US/security/VTS20-010
vendor-advisory
kb.cert.org /vuls/id/429301
third-party-advisory, us-government-resource

Sources

CVE List CVE-2020-36167
NVD CVE-2020-36167

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary