vBulletin - RCE (CVE-2020-17496)

CVE-2020-17496 is a critical vulnerability in vBulletin that allows remote attackers to achieve unauthenticated command execution by abusing ajax functionality with specially crafted data.

CrowdSec has been tracking this vulnerability and its exploits since 15th of December 2023.

According to CrowdSec data, while opportunistic exploitation dominates, a portion of threat actors trying to exploit CVE-2020-17496 apply basic targeting methods such as port or service detection. This indicates emerging patterns of selective targeting. Telemetry from the CrowdSec network also shows that exploitation activity for CVE-2020-17496 remains steady week-over-week. Attack volumes are consistent with long-term trends, indicating sustained interest from threat actors. CVE-2020-17496 continues to be an active part of the threat landscape and will likely remain this way for the forseeable future.

Attackers typically target URLs containing /ajax/render/widget_tabbedcontainer_tab_panel in their exploitation attempts.