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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2020-7221 json

mysql_install_db in MariaDB 10.4.7 through 10.4.11 allows privilege escalation from the mysql user account to root because chown and chmod…

published 2020-02-04 6 y ago modified 2026-09-08 2 mo ago also BIT-mariadb-2020-7221 , BIT-mariadb-min-2020-7221 , BIT-mysql-client-2020-7221 , EUVD-2020-28350

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.7%
EPSS 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 52%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

mysql_install_db in MariaDB 10.4.7 through 10.4.11 allows privilege escalation from the mysql user account to root because chown and chmod are performed unsafely, as demonstrated by a symlink attack on a chmod 04755 of auth_pam_tool_dir/auth_pam_tool. NOTE: this does not affect the Oracle MySQL product, which implements mysql_install_db differently.

Patch / fix

  • bitnami mariadb 10.4.12
  • bitnami mysql-client 10.4.12
  • mariadb104 SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5, SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP5 10.4.30-8.5.46
  • lz4 SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5, SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP5 1.8.0-3.5.2
  • python-mysqlclient SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5, SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP5 1.3.14-8.9.2
  • mariadb-connector-c SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5, SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP5 3.1.22-2.35.1
  • mariadb104 SLES for SAP 15 SP1, SLES 15 SP1-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP1-LTSS 10.4.30-150100.3.5.10
  • python-mysqlclient SLES for SAP 15 SP1, SLES 15 SP1-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP1-LTSS 1.4.6-150100.3.3.7

suse advisories SUSE-RU-2023:4991-1SUSE-RU-2023:3956-1

  • mariadb openSUSE Tumbleweed 10.6.4-2.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:11038-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2020-7221 updated cvss 7.8

mariadb: mysql_install_db allows privilege escalation due to unsafe chown and chmod operations

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 mariadb, mariadb-libs, mariadb-test, mariadb-bench, mariadb-server, mariadb-embedded Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Judy, galera, mariadb, mariadb-pam, mariadb-test, mariadb-backup, +8 more Red Hat OpenStack Platform 13 (Queens) mariadb, mariadb-libs, mariadb-test, mariadb-common, mariadb-config, mariadb-errmsg, +3 more Red Hat Software Collections rh-mariadb102, rh-mariadb103, rh-mariadb102-runtime, rh-mariadb103-runtime, rh-mariadb102-scldevel, rh-mariadb102-syspaths, +2 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.67% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 52% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • seclists.org https://seclists.org/oss-sec/2020/q1/55 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • bugzilla.suse.com https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1160868 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.2 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
OSV 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
bitnami mariadb
>=10.4.7, <10.4.12
10.4.12
bitnami mariadb-min
>=10.4.7, <=10.4.11
 no fix listed
bitnami mysql-client
>=10.4.7, <10.4.12
10.4.12

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-59 Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
Technology feeds

References

Sources

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.