CVE-2020-24356
Local Privilege Escalation in cloudflared
cloudflared versions prior to 2020.8.1 contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability on Windows systems. When run on a Windows system, cloudflared searches for configuration files which could be abused by a malicious entity to execute commands as a privileged user. Version 2020.8.1 fixes this issue.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- High
- Privileges needed
- Low
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
CVE List Score used
6.4
Local Privilege Escalation in cloudflared
cloudflared versions prior to 2020.8.1 contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability on Windows systems. When run on a Windows system, cloudflared searches for configuration files which could be abused by a malicious entity to execute commands as a privileged user. Version 2020.8.1 fixes this issue.
- Record
CVE-2020-24356- CVSS 3.1
- 6.4 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:N - Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2021-1103
6.4
cloudflared versions prior to 2020.8.1 contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability on Windows systems. When run on a Windows system, cloudflared searches for configuration files which could be abused by a malicious entity to execute commands as a privileged user. Version 2020.8.1 fixes this issue.
- Record
EUVD-2021-1103- CVSS 3.1
- 6.4 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:N - Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-hgwp-4vp4-qmm2
7.8
Local Privilege Escalation in cloudflared
In cloudflared versions < 2020.8.1 (corresponding to 0.0.0-20200820025921-9323844ea773 on pkg.go.dev) on Windows, if an administrator has started cloudflared and set it to read configuration files from a certain directory, an unprivileged user can exploit a misconfiguration in order to escalate privileges and execute system-level commands. The misconfiguration was due to the way that cloudflared reads its configuration file. One of the locations that cloudflared reads from (C:\etc) is not a secure by default directory due to the fact that Windows does not enforce access controls on this directory without further controls applied. A malformed config.yaml file can be written by any user. Upon reading this config, cloudflared would output an error message to a log file defined in the malformed config. The user-controlled log file location could be set to a specific location that Windows will execute when any user logs in.
- Record
GHSA-hgwp-4vp4-qmm2- CVSS 3.1
- 7.8 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-427
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
NVD
6.4
cloudflared versions prior to 2020.8.1 contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability on Windows systems. When run on a Windows system, cloudflared searches for configuration files which could be abused by a malicious entity to execute commands as a privileged user. Version 2020.8.1 fixes this issue.
- Record
CVE-2020-24356- CVSS 3.1
- 6.4 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:H/A:N - CVSS 3.1
- 7.8 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - CVSS 2.0
- 4.6 Medium
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P - Weakness
- CWE-427
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
7.8
cloudflared versions prior to 2020.8.1 contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability on Windows systems. When run on a Windows system, cloudflared searches for configuration files which could be abused by a malicious entity to execute commands as a privileged user. Version 2020.8.1 fixes this issue.
- Record
CVE-2020-24356- CVSS 3.1
- 7.8 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-hgwp-4vp4-qmm2
7.8
Local Privilege Escalation in cloudflared
In cloudflared versions < 2020.8.1 (corresponding to 0.0.0-20200820025921-9323844ea773 on pkg.go.dev) on Windows, if an administrator has started cloudflared and set it to read configuration files from a certain directory, an unprivileged user can exploit a misconfiguration in order to escalate privileges and execute system-level commands. The misconfiguration was due to the way that cloudflared reads its configuration file. One of the locations that cloudflared reads from (C:\etc) is not a secure by default directory due to the fact that Windows does not enforce access controls on this directory without further controls applied. A malformed config.yaml file can be written by any user. Upon reading this config, cloudflared would output an error message to a log file defined in the malformed config. The user-controlled log file location could be set to a specific location that Windows will execute when any user logs in.
- Record
GHSA-hgwp-4vp4-qmm2- CVSS 3.1
- 7.8 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-427
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVGO-2022-0845 No score
Local Privilege Escalation in cloudflared in github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared
Local Privilege Escalation in cloudflared in github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared
- Record
GO-2022-0845- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
github.com/cloudflare/cloudflaredGo |
before 0.0.0-20200820025921-9323844ea773 | 0.0.0-20200820025921-9323844ea773 |
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| aliases, published | EUVD | |
| first indexed | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2020-24356 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 6.4) in Cloudflare Cloudflared, published October 2, 2020. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.35%, the 28th percentile. Fixed in github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared 0.0.0-20200820025921-9323844ea773.