{"id":"CVE-2020-8903","aliases":["EUVD-2020-29742","GHSA-29mh-jw46-2rf9","SUSE-SU-2020:1934-1","SUSE-SU-2020:2200-1","UBUNTU-CVE-2020-8903","openSUSE-SU-2020:0996-1","openSUSE-SU-2020:1014-1"],"status":"published","title":"Priviged Escalation in Google Cloud Platform's Guest-OSLogin","description":"A vulnerability in Google Cloud Platform's guest-oslogin versions between 20190304 and 20200507 allows a user that is only granted the role \"roles/compute.osLogin\" to escalate privileges to root. Using their membership to the \"adm\" group, users with this role are able to read the DHCP XID from the systemd journal. Using the DHCP XID, it is then possible to set the IP address and hostname of the instance to any value, which is then stored in /etc/hosts. An attacker can then point metadata.google.internal to an arbitrary IP address and impersonate the GCE metadata server which make it is possible to instruct the OS Login PAM module to grant administrative privileges. All images created after 2020-May-07 (20200507) are fixed, and if you cannot update, we recommend you edit /etc/group/security.conf and remove the \"adm\" user from the OS Login entry.","severity":{"version":"4.0","score":7.3,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H","level":"high","assessor":"cna","from":"cve"},"epss":{"day":"2026-11-08","score":0.00315,"percentile":0.24624,"model":"v2026.06.15"},"facts":{"in_kev":false,"known_exploited":false,"public_exploit":false,"fix_available":true},"cwes":["CWE-276"],"published":"2020-06-22T13:45:25Z","modified":"2026-10-20T10:50:09Z","fixes":[{"ecosystem":"Ubuntu:16.04:LTS","package":"gce-compute-image-packages","fixed_in":["20190801-0ubuntu1~16.04.1"],"sources":["osv"]},{"ecosystem":"Ubuntu:18.04:LTS","package":"gce-compute-image-packages","fixed_in":["20190801-0ubuntu1~18.04.1"],"sources":["osv"]},{"ecosystem":"Ubuntu:20.04:LTS","package":"gce-compute-image-packages","fixed_in":["20190801-0ubuntu4.1"],"sources":["osv"]}],"affected":[{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 15 SP1","package":"google-compute-engine","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"20190801-4.38.1"}]}],"bundled":3},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 15 SP2","package":"google-compute-engine","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"20190801-4.38.1"}]}],"bundled":3},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 12","package":"google-compute-engine","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"20190801-54.1"}]}],"bundled":3},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Ubuntu:14.04:LTS","package":"gce-compute-image-packages","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"}]}],"versions":["20160930-0ubuntu3~14.04.0","20160930-0ubuntu3~14.04.1","20160930-0ubuntu3~14.04.2","20160930-0ubuntu6~14.04.0","20170426-0ubuntu2~14.04.0","20170523-0ubuntu1~14.04.0","20170622-0ubuntu1~14.04.0","20170718-0ubuntu1~14.04.0","20171019+dfsg1-0ubuntu1~14.04.0","20171025+dfsg1-0ubuntu1~14.04.0","20171129+dfsg1-0ubuntu1~14.04.0","20180129+dfsg1-0ubuntu1~14.04.0","20180510+dfsg1-0ubuntu3~14.04.3","20180905+dfsg1-0ubuntu1~14.04.0","20180905+dfsg1-0ubuntu1~14.04.1","20190124+dfsg1-0ubuntu1~14.04.0","20190315-0ubuntu1~14.04.0"]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Ubuntu:16.04:LTS","package":"gce-compute-image-packages","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"20190801-0ubuntu1~16.04.1"}]}],"versions":["20160930-0ubuntu3~16.04.0","20160930-0ubuntu5~16.04.0","20160930-0ubuntu6~16.04.0","20170426-0ubuntu2~16.04.0","20170523-0ubuntu1~16.04.0","20170622-0ubuntu1~16.04.0","20170718-0ubuntu1~16.04.0","20171019+dfsg1-0ubuntu1~16.04.0","20171025+dfsg1-0ubuntu1~16.04.0","20171129+dfsg1-0ubuntu1~16.04.0","20180129+dfsg1-0ubuntu1~16.04.0","20180510+dfsg1-0ubuntu3~16.04.0","20180510+dfsg1-0ubuntu3~16.04.1","20180905+dfsg1-0ubuntu1~16.04.0","20180905+dfsg1-0ubuntu1~16.04.1","20190124+dfsg1-0ubuntu1~16.04.0","20190522-0ubuntu1~16.04.0","20190801-0ubuntu1~16.04.0"]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Ubuntu:18.04:LTS","package":"gce-compute-image-packages","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"20190801-0ubuntu1~18.04.1"}]}],"versions":["20171006+dfsg1-0ubuntu1","20171019+dfsg1-0ubuntu1","20171025+dfsg1-0ubuntu1","20171129+dfsg1-0ubuntu1","20180129+dfsg1-0ubuntu1","20180129+dfsg1-0ubuntu2","20180129+dfsg1-0ubuntu3","20180510+dfsg1-0ubuntu4~18.04.0","20180510+dfsg1-0ubuntu4~18.04.1","20180905+dfsg1-0ubuntu1~18.04.0","20190124+dfsg1-0ubuntu1~18.04.0","20190522-0ubuntu1~18.04.0","20190801-0ubuntu1~18.04.0"]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Ubuntu:20.04:LTS","package":"gce-compute-image-packages","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"20190801-0ubuntu4.1"}]}],"versions":["20190801-0ubuntu1","20190801-0ubuntu2","20190801-0ubuntu3","20190801-0ubuntu4"]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"openSUSE:Leap 15.1","package":"google-compute-engine","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"20190801-lp151.2.25.1"}]}],"bundled":3},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"openSUSE:Leap 15.2","package":"google-compute-engine","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"fixed":"20190801-lp152.5.4.1"}]}],"bundled":3}],"products":[{"vendor":"google","product":"guest-oslogin"},{"vendor":"google llc","product":"guest-oslogin"},{"vendor":"opensuse","product":"leap"}],"references":[{"url":"https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/guest-oslogin/pull/29","tags":["x_refsource_CONFIRM","x_transferred","Patch","Third Party Advisory","fix","report"]},{"url":"https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-security/gl-redteam/red-team-tech-notes/-/tree/master/oslogin-privesc-june-2020","tags":["x_refsource_MISC","x_transferred","Exploit","Third Party Advisory","evidence","report"]},{"url":"https://cloud.google.com/support/bulletins/#gcp-2020-008","tags":["x_refsource_MISC","x_transferred","Vendor Advisory","advisory","report"]},{"url":"http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-07/msg00037.html","tags":["vendor-advisory","x_refsource_SUSE","x_transferred","Mailing List","Third Party Advisory","advisory"]},{"url":"http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-07/msg00047.html","tags":["vendor-advisory","x_refsource_SUSE","x_transferred","Mailing List","Third Party Advisory","advisory"]},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-8903"},{"url":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-29mh-jw46-2rf9"},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/support/update/announcement/2020/suse-su-20201934-1/","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://bugzilla.suse.com/1169978","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://bugzilla.suse.com/1173258","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-8903","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-8907","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-8933","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://www.suse.com/support/update/announcement/2020/suse-su-20202200-1/","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-8903","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-8903","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/security-announce@lists.opensuse.org/thread/IVJLT7VD4IXF6BKE2FPGIOJQTMKAC6Z5/","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/security-announce@lists.opensuse.org/thread/QL6WIX4PNU5XVJCZJX66JTLS2DSJSYZC/","tags":["advisory"]}],"sources":{"cve":[{"id":"CVE-2020-8903","title":"Priviged Escalation in Google Cloud Platform's Guest-OSLogin","description":"A vulnerability in Google Cloud Platform's guest-oslogin versions between 20190304 and 20200507 allows a user that is only granted the role \"roles/compute.osLogin\" to escalate privileges to root. Using their membership to the \"adm\" group, users with this role are able to read the DHCP XID from the systemd journal. Using the DHCP XID, it is then possible to set the IP address and hostname of the instance to any value, which is then stored in /etc/hosts. An attacker can then point metadata.google.internal to an arbitrary IP address and impersonate the GCE metadata server which make it is possible to instruct the OS Login PAM module to grant administrative privileges. All images created after 2020-May-07 (20200507) are fixed, and if you cannot update, we recommend you edit /etc/group/security.conf and remove the \"adm\" user from the OS Login entry.","status":"published","published":"2020-06-22T13:45:25Z","modified":"2024-08-04T10:12:11.047Z","cvss":[{"version":"4.0","score":7.3,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H","level":"high","assessor":"cna"}],"cwes":["CWE-276"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:35:50.88562Z"}],"euvd":[{"id":"EUVD-2020-29742","description":"A vulnerability in Google Cloud Platform's guest-oslogin versions between 20190304 and 20200507 allows a user that is only granted the role \"roles/compute.osLogin\" to escalate privileges to root. Using their membership to the \"adm\" group, users with this role are able to read the DHCP XID from the systemd journal. Using the DHCP XID, it is then possible to set the IP address and hostname of the instance to any value, which is then stored in /etc/hosts. An attacker can then point metadata.google.internal to an arbitrary IP address and impersonate the GCE metadata server which make it is possible to instruct the OS Login PAM module to grant administrative privileges. All images created after 2020-May-07 (20200507) are fixed, and if you cannot update, we recommend you edit /etc/group/security.conf and remove the \"adm\" user from the OS Login entry.","status":"published","published":"2020-06-22T13:45:25Z","modified":"2024-08-04T10:12:11Z","cvss":[{"version":"4.0","score":7.3,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H","level":"high"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-03T03:07:55.71159Z"}],"ghsa":[{"id":"GHSA-29mh-jw46-2rf9","title":"A vulnerability in Google Cloud Platform's guest-oslogin versions between 20190304 and 20200507...","description":"A vulnerability in Google Cloud Platform's guest-oslogin versions between 20190304 and 20200507 allows a user that is only granted the role \"roles/compute.osLogin\" to escalate privileges to root. Using their membership to the \"adm\" group, users with this role are able to read the DHCP XID from the systemd journal. Using the DHCP XID, it is then possible to set the IP address and hostname of the instance to any value, which is then stored in /etc/hosts. An attacker can then point metadata.google.internal to an arbitrary IP address and impersonate the GCE metadata server which make it is possible to instruct the OS Login PAM module to grant administrative privileges. All images created after 2020-May-07 (20200507) are fixed, and if you cannot update, we recommend you edit /etc/group/security.conf and remove the \"adm\" user from the OS Login entry.","status":"published","published":"2022-05-24T17:21:28Z","modified":"2023-01-29T05:03:07Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":7.8,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high"}],"cwes":["CWE-276"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:45:15.109911Z"}],"nvd":[{"id":"CVE-2020-8903","description":"A vulnerability in Google Cloud Platform's guest-oslogin versions between 20190304 and 20200507 allows a user that is only granted the role \"roles/compute.osLogin\" to escalate privileges to root. Using their membership to the \"adm\" group, users with this role are able to read the DHCP XID from the systemd journal. Using the DHCP XID, it is then possible to set the IP address and hostname of the instance to any value, which is then stored in /etc/hosts. An attacker can then point metadata.google.internal to an arbitrary IP address and impersonate the GCE metadata server which make it is possible to instruct the OS Login PAM module to grant administrative privileges. All images created after 2020-May-07 (20200507) are fixed, and if you cannot update, we recommend you edit /etc/group/security.conf and remove the \"adm\" user from the OS Login entry.","status":"published","published":"2020-06-22T14:15:11.643Z","modified":"2026-06-17T03:27:09.223Z","cvss":[{"version":"4.0","score":7.3,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/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","level":"high","assessor":"secondary"},{"version":"3.1","score":7.8,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high","assessor":"primary"},{"version":"2.0","score":6.9,"vector":"AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C","level":"medium","assessor":"primary"}],"cwes":["CWE-276"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:06:07.249892Z"}],"osv":[{"id":"CVE-2020-8903","description":"A vulnerability in Google Cloud Platform's guest-oslogin versions between 20190304 and 20200507 allows a user that is only granted the role \"roles/compute.osLogin\" to escalate privileges to root. Using their membership to the \"adm\" group, users with this role are able to read the DHCP XID from the systemd journal. Using the DHCP XID, it is then possible to set the IP address and hostname of the instance to any value, which is then stored in /etc/hosts. An attacker can then point metadata.google.internal to an arbitrary IP address and impersonate the GCE metadata server which make it is possible to instruct the OS Login PAM module to grant administrative privileges. All images created after 2020-May-07 (20200507) are fixed, and if you cannot update, we recommend you edit /etc/group/security.conf and remove the \"adm\" user from the OS Login entry.","status":"published","published":"2020-06-22T14:15:11.643Z","modified":"2026-10-20T10:50:09.456334718Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":7.8,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:44:17.663289Z"},{"id":"UBUNTU-CVE-2020-8903","description":"A vulnerability in Google Cloud Platform's guest-oslogin versions between 20190304 and 20200507 allows a user that is only granted the role \"roles/compute.osLogin\" to escalate privileges to root. Using their membership to the \"adm\" group, users with this role are able to read the DHCP XID from the systemd journal. Using the DHCP XID, it is then possible to set the IP address and hostname of the instance to any value, which is then stored in /etc/hosts. An attacker can then point metadata.google.internal to an arbitrary IP address and impersonate the GCE metadata server which make it is possible to instruct the OS Login PAM module to grant administrative privileges. All images created after 2020-May-07 (20200507) are fixed, and if you cannot update, we recommend you edit /etc/group/security.conf and remove the \"adm\" user from the OS Login entry.","status":"published","published":"2020-06-22T14:15:00Z","modified":"2025-10-24T04:48:20Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":7.8,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high"},{"version":"4.0","score":7.3,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H","level":"high"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:54:25.728622Z"},{"id":"openSUSE-SU-2020:0996-1","title":"Security update for google-compute-engine","description":"This update for google-compute-engine fixes the following issues:\n\n- Don't enable and start google-network-daemon.service when it's\n  already installed (bsc#1169978)\n\n  + Do not add the created user to the adm (CVE-2020-8903),\n    docker (CVE-2020-8907), or lxd (CVE-2020-8933) groups\n    if they exist (bsc#1173258)\nThis update was imported from the SUSE:SLE-15:Update update project.","status":"published","published":"2020-07-18T16:28:09Z","modified":"2026-02-04T02:31:11.047413Z","updated_at":"2026-11-02T16:58:31.152112Z"},{"id":"openSUSE-SU-2020:1014-1","title":"Security update for google-compute-engine","description":"This update for google-compute-engine fixes the following issues:\n\n- Don't enable and start google-network-daemon.service when it's\n  already installed (bsc#1169978)\n\n  + Do not add the created user to the adm (CVE-2020-8903),\n    docker (CVE-2020-8907), or lxd (CVE-2020-8933) groups\n    if they exist (bsc#1173258)","status":"published","published":"2020-07-19T18:25:49Z","modified":"2026-02-04T04:01:13.059862Z","updated_at":"2026-11-02T16:58:31.152112Z"},{"id":"SUSE-SU-2020:1934-1","title":"Security update for google-compute-engine","description":"This update for google-compute-engine fixes the following issues:\n\n- Don't enable and start google-network-daemon.service when it's\n  already installed (bsc#1169978)\n\n  + Do not add the created user to the adm (CVE-2020-8903),\n    docker (CVE-2020-8907), or lxd (CVE-2020-8933) groups\n    if they exist (bsc#1173258)","status":"published","published":"2020-07-15T13:07:43Z","modified":"2026-02-04T02:42:34.721262Z","updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:53:47.634847Z"},{"id":"SUSE-SU-2020:2200-1","title":"Security update for google-compute-engine","description":"This update for google-compute-engine fixes the following issues:\n\n- Do not add the created user to the adm (CVE-2020-8903), docker (CVE-2020-8907), or lxd (CVE-2020-8933) groups if they exist (bsc#1173258).\n- Don't enable and start google-network-daemon.service when it's already installed (bsc#1169978).\n","status":"published","published":"2020-08-11T11:34:49Z","modified":"2026-02-04T04:22:20.54801Z","updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:53:48.11786Z"}]}}