Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2020-36911 is a critical flaw in Cobbr Covenant that can let an unauthenticated attacker forge admin JWTs and run code on the Covenant host. For organizations operating Covenant, compromise could mean full control of that server. The bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or confirmed active exploitation.
Executive priority
Treat as urgent if Covenant is present. The flaw is unauthenticated, remotely reachable, and can lead to full server compromise, but action should focus on confirmed Covenant deployments rather than broad enterprise panic.
Technical view
Covenant 0.1.3 through 0.5 is described as using a hard-coded JWT secret issue (CWE-798). A forged token can grant administrative privileges, enabling upload of custom DLL payloads and arbitrary command execution. CVSS 3.1 is 9.8, network exploitable, low complexity, no privileges, and no user interaction.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely limited to environments running Cobbr Covenant, especially any reachable Covenant administrative service or server. The provided affected data specifically names Covenant 0.1.3, while the description states 0.1.3 through 0.5.
Exploitation context
Public exploit references are listed, including ExploitDB and a GitHub exploit repository. However, the bundle marks KEV as false and provides no cited evidence of active in-the-wild exploitation.
Researcher notes
The record has some version ambiguity: affected data names 0.1.3, while the description says 0.1.3 through 0.5. Validate against original advisory, repository history, and maintainer patch notes before declaring scope.
Mitigation direction
- Identify any Covenant deployments and their exact versions.
- Restrict network access to Covenant management interfaces immediately.
- Review the archived maintainer patch announcement and vendor repository guidance.
- Upgrade, patch, or retire affected Covenant instances according to vendor guidance.
- Rotate secrets and credentials associated with exposed Covenant infrastructure.
Validation and detection
- Inventory hosts for Covenant services, repositories, containers, and running processes.
- Confirm deployed Covenant versions against the affected version range.
- Review access logs for unexpected administrative sessions or token use.
- Check for unauthorized DLL uploads or unexpected server-side execution artifacts.
- Verify management interfaces are not internet-accessible unless explicitly required.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-798: Credential and account abuse lookup
Authentication and credential weaknesses can make valid-account abuse and credential telemetry useful review starting points. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupExecution behavior lookup
The CVE wording references code or command execution, so execution technique review may help defensive triage. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2020-36911 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Critical
- CVSS
- 9.8 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
SSVC decision data
CVSS vector scores
2 official scoresWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H3.95.9VulnCheckCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N——VulnCheckVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 4.0 score
9.3CriticalVector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Base CVSS 3.1 score
9.8CriticalVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Vulnerability timeline
Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.
- CVE reservedCVE Program
The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.
- CVE publishedCVE Program
The CVE record was published.
- CVE updatedCVE Program
The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.
ADP provider summaries
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- ExploitDB-51141CVE reference, VulnCheck · exploit
- Vendor HomepageCVE reference, VulnCheck · product
- Covenant GitHub RepositoryCVE reference, VulnCheck · product
- Archived Researcher BlogCVE reference, VulnCheck · technical-description, exploit
- Exploit RepositoryCVE reference, VulnCheck · exploit
- Archived Maintainer Patch AnnouncementCVE reference, VulnCheck · vendor-advisory, patch
- VulnCheck Advisory: Covenant 0.5 - Remote Code Execution (RCE)CVE reference, VulnCheck · third-party-advisory
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Use of Hard-coded Credentials
Use of Hard-coded Credentials represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.