Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2020-7198 is an authenticated remote privilege escalation issue in HPE OneView and HPE Synergy Composer products. A malicious user who already has a OneView account may be able to gain higher privileges. HPE’s stated remediation is updating OneView, Composer, or Composer2 to version 5.5.
Executive priority
Prioritize remediation for production infrastructure management environments. The account prerequisite lowers broad internet risk, but successful privilege escalation in a management plane could materially affect server, enclosure, or operational control.
Technical view
The source bundle describes remote escalation of privilege affecting HP OneView, HPE Synergy Composer, and HPE Synergy Composer 2 versions 5.0 through 5.4 variants. No CVSS score, CWE, technical root cause, or exploit mechanics are provided. The vendor reference names version 5.5 as the update target.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely in organizations running affected HPE OneView or Synergy Composer management appliances, especially where multiple users have OneView accounts. The issue requires an existing account, so anonymous internet exposure is not supported by the sources.
Exploitation context
The provided sources do not report active exploitation, and the CVE is not listed as KEV in the source bundle. Exploitation requires a malicious user with a OneView account, but public technical details are incomplete here.
Researcher notes
Evidence is limited to the CVE description and HPE advisory reference. The bundle does not include CVSS, CWE, root cause, exploit status, or detailed affected build metadata beyond listed versions. Avoid assuming exploitability beyond authenticated remote privilege escalation.
Mitigation direction
- Update OneView, Composer, or Composer2 to version 5.5 per HPE guidance.
- Identify any affected 5.0, 5.00.01, 5.00.02, 5.2, 5.20.01, 5.3, or 5.4 deployments.
- Limit OneView account access to users with a current operational need.
- Review privileged accounts and remove stale or unnecessary access.
- Check the HPE advisory for deployment-specific prerequisites or caveats.
Validation and detection
- Inventory HPE OneView and Synergy Composer versions across management environments.
- Confirm affected instances are upgraded to version 5.5 or later.
- Review OneView account lists for unauthorized or stale users.
- Check administrative audit logs for unexpected privilege changes.
- Document any systems that cannot yet be upgraded and compensating controls.
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.
CVE-2020-7198 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
- Unknown
- CVSS
- Not scored
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
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.
CVSS and timeline data
No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docLocale=en_US&docId=emr_na-hpesbhf04047en_usCVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
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.