CVE-2020-36851

CRITICAL EPSS 58.6%
Published Sep 25, 20259mo ago · Modified Jun 17, 20261w ago
9.5 CVSS 4.0
Critical
Find Similar
Published Sep 25, 2025 9mo ago
Last Modified Jun 17, 2026 1w ago

Description

Rob--W cors-anywhere instances configured as an open proxy allow unauthenticated external users to induce the server to make HTTP requests to arbitrary targets (SSRF). Because the proxy forwards requests and headers, an attacker can reach internal-only endpoints and link-local metadata services, retrieve instance role credentials or other sensitive metadata, and interact with internal APIs and services that are not intended to be internet-facing. The vulnerability is exploitable by sending crafted requests to the proxy with the target resource encoded in the URL; many cors-anywhere deployments forward arbitrary methods and headers (including PUT), which can permit exploitation of IMDSv2 workflows as well as access to internal management APIs. Successful exploitation can result in theft of cloud credentials, unauthorized access to internal services, remote code execution or privilege escalation (depending on reachable backends), data exfiltration, and full compromise of cloud resources. Mitigation includes: restricting the proxy to trusted origins or authentication, whitelisting allowed target hosts, preventing access to link-local and internal IP ranges, removing support for unsafe HTTP methods/headers, enabling cloud provider mitigations, and deploying network-level protections.

CVSS Details

Base Score
9.5
Exploitability
Impact
Vector string
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
Attack Vector Network
Attack Complexity Low
Privileges Required None
User Interaction None
Scope X

Threat Intelligence

EPSS Exploit Probability
58.6% percentile
Exploit & Patch Status
No Known Exploit
No Patch Available

Weaknesses 2

CWE-918 Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) Validation
CWE-942

References 6

  • github.com https://github.com/Rob--W/cors-anywhere/issues/152
  • github.com https://github.com/Rob--W/cors-anywhere/issues/521
  • github.com https://github.com/Rob--W/cors-anywhere/issues/78
  • github.com https://github.com/SocketDev/security-research/security/advisories/GHSA-9wmg-93pw-fc3g
  • certik.com https://www.certik.com/resources/blog/cors-anywhere-dangers-of-misconfigured-third-party-software
  • vulncheck.com https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/rob-w-cors-anywhere-misconfigured-cors-proxy-allows-ssrf

Remediation

No remediation data recorded yet

Check vendor advisories and the NVD entry for patch availability.