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Vulnerability record · CVE-2020-24046 · published 17 September 2020

CVE-2020-24046: Titanhq spamtitan improper privilege management vulnerability

Titanhq · Spamtitan

A sandbox escape issue was discovered in TitanHQ SpamTitan Gateway 7.07. It limits the admin user to a restricted shell, allowing execution of a small number of tools of the operating system. This restricted shell can be bypassed after changing the properties of the user admin in the operating system file /etc/passwd. This file cannot be accessed though the restricted shell, but it can be modified by abusing the Backup/Import Backup functionality of the web interface. An authenticated attacker would be able to obtain the file /var/tmp/admin.passwd after executing a Backup operation. This file can be manually modified to change the GUID of the user to 0 (root) and change the restricted shell to a normal shell /bin/sh. After the modification is done, the file can be recompressed to a .tar.bz file and imported again via the Import Backup functionality. The properties of the admin user will be overwritten and a root shell will be granted to the user upon the next successful login.

7.2 CVSS 3.1 High EPSS 3.4% · top 11.6% CWE-269 · Improper privilege management
7.2CVSS 3.1 base score, v2 9.0
3.4%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
1Affected product versions listed by NVD
8References, 2 tagged exploit
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

A sandbox escape issue was discovered in TitanHQ SpamTitan Gateway 7.07. It limits the admin user to a restricted shell, allowing execution of a small number of tools of the operating system. This restricted shell can be bypassed after changing the properties of the user admin in the operating system file /etc/passwd. This file cannot be accessed though the restricted shell, but it can be modified by abusing the Backup/Import Backup functionality of the web interface. An authenticated attacker would be able to obtain the file /var/tmp/admin.passwd after executing a Backup operation. This file can be manually modified to change the GUID of the user to 0 (root) and change the restricted shell to a normal shell /bin/sh. After the modification is done, the file can be recompressed to a .tar.bz file and imported again via the Import Backup functionality. The properties of the admin user will be overwritten and a root shell will be granted to the user upon the next successful login.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

1 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
https://github.com/felmoltor Third Party Advisory
https://sensepost.com/blog/2020/clash-of-the-spamtitan/ ExploitThird Party Advisory
https://twitter.com/felmoltor Third Party Advisory
https://www.titanhq.com Vendor Advisory
https://github.com/felmoltor Third Party Advisory
https://sensepost.com/blog/2020/clash-of-the-spamtitan/ ExploitThird Party Advisory
https://twitter.com/felmoltor Third Party Advisory
https://www.titanhq.com Vendor Advisory

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Related vulnerabilities

Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.

9.8CVE-2020-11698SpamTitan snmp-x.php community parameter command injectionTitan SpamTitan 7.07 fails to sanitize the 'community' parameter on snmp-x.php, letting a remote attacker inject commands into snmpd.conf. Because th…EPSS 73%analysed8.8CVE-2020-11803Titanhq spamtitan code injection vulnerabilityAn issue was discovered in Titan SpamTitan 7.07. Improper sanitization of the parameter jaction when interacting with the page mailqueue.php could le…EPSS 7.6%8.8CVE-2020-11804Titanhq spamtitan code injection vulnerabilityAn issue was discovered in Titan SpamTitan 7.07. Due to improper sanitization of the parameter quid, used in the page mailqueue.php, code injection c…EPSS 7.1%8.8CVE-2020-11699Titanhq spamtitan os command injection vulnerabilityAn issue was discovered in Titan SpamTitan 7.07. Improper validation of the parameter fname on the page certs-x.php would allow an attacker to execut…EPSS 9.6%7.5CVE-2019-6800Titanhq spamtitan injection vulnerabilityIn TitanHQ SpamTitan through 7.03, a vulnerability exists in the spam rule update function. Updates are downloaded over HTTP, including scripts which…EPSS 1.3%7.2CVE-2020-24045Titanhq spamtitan insufficient verification of data authenticity vulnerabilityA sandbox escape issue was discovered in TitanHQ SpamTitan Gateway 7.07. It limits the admin user to a restricted shell, allowing execution of a smal…EPSS 1.6%6.5CVE-2020-11700Titanhq spamtitan path traversal vulnerabilityAn issue was discovered in Titan SpamTitan 7.07. Improper sanitization of the parameter fname, used on the page certs-x.php, would allow an attacker …EPSS 7.1%5.3CVE-2020-35658Titanhq spamtitan cleartext storage of sensitive data vulnerabilitySpamTitan before 7.09 allows attackers to tamper with backups, because backups are not encrypted.EPSS 0.51%

Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2020-24046), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-27). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.