CVE-2020-9480

CRITICALNVD 9.89.8—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

This critical-severity CVE scores 9.8 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 26.8%, top 2% of all CVEs by exploit prediction. GitHub Security Advisory data not yet ingested — confidence will rise once GHSA publishes (typical lag: hours to days for open-source ecosystem CVEs; never for infrastructure-only CVEs).

Triggered by: NVD CVSS baseline
Sources: epss, nvd
Trending — 3 sources updated this weekElevated
9.8
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS: 27%CVSS: 9.8Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.

In Apache Spark 2.4.5 and earlier, a standalone resource manager's master may be configured to require authentication (spark.authenticate) via a shared secret. When enabled, however, a specially-crafted RPC to the master can succeed in starting an application's resources on the Spark cluster, even without the shared key. This can be leveraged to execute shell commands on the host machine. This does not affect Spark clusters using other resource managers (YARN, Mesos, etc).

CVSS v3
9.8
EG Score
9.8(medium)
EG Risk
65(Track*)
EG Risk 65/100SSVC: Track*

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity98% × 45%
Exploitation40% × 40%
Automatability30% × 15%
Action: Watch closely — could escalate to Attend.
EPSS
97.8%
KEV
Not listed

Published

June 23, 2020

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

Advisory Details (5)

Auto-updated Jul 8, 2026
No patch confirmed yet.
generic
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/ree9e87aae81852330290a478692e36ea6db47a52a694545c7d66e3e2%40%3Cdev.spark.apache.org%3E
generic
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rb3956440747e41940d552d377d50b144b60085e7ff727adb0e575d8d%40%3Ccommits.submarine.apache.org%3E
generic
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/ra0e62a18ad080c4ce6df5e0202a27eaada75222761efc3f7238b5a3b%40%3Ccommits.doris.apache.org%3E
generic
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r03ad9fe7c07d6039fba9f2152d345274473cb0af3d8a4794a6645f4b%40%3Cuser.spark.apache.org%3E
generic

Security | Apache Spark

https://spark.apache.org/security.html#CVE-2020-9480

Affected Packages

(2 across 2 ecosystems)
Maven(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
org.apache.spark:spark-parent_2.111.3.0 ... 2.4.5 (34 versions)2.4.6—
PyPI(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
pyspark2.1.1 ... 2.4.5 (18 versions)2.4.6—

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 14× in last 7d / 45× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

  1. 2026-07-23 01:55 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-07-22 22:42 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-07-22 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
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  8. 2026-07-19 14:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-07-19 14:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-07-19 10:22 UTCOSV refresh
  11. 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
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  17. 2026-07-13 22:27 UTCEPSS rescore
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  19. 2026-07-13 06:10 UTCEPSS rescore
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  21. 2026-07-12 05:44 UTCEPSS rescore
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  23. 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-07-09 19:07 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 48 more
  1. 2026-07-08 15:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-07 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-05 02:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-07-05 02:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-07-02 16:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-07-01 16:31 UTCOSV refresh
  8. 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
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  13. 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
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  15. 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
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  17. 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-21 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-06-21 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-06-18 17:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-06-17 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-06-15 17:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-06-14 23:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-06-14 00:13 UTCOSV refresh
  33. 2026-06-12 23:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  34. 2026-06-12 23:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  35. 2026-06-10 13:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  36. 2026-06-08 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  37. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  38. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  39. 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-05-31 00:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  42. 2026-05-31 00:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  43. 2026-05-29 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  44. 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-05-27 02:02 UTCEG score recompute
  47. 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  48. 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore

Publicly available exploits

(1 reference)

Working exploit code is in the public domain. Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

  • Nucleihttp/cves/2020/CVE-2020-9480.yaml
    First seen Jan 1, 2020

    Apache Spark - Authentication Bypass

    Open source ↗

Related CVEs(same CWE)

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2020-9480?
CVE-2020-9480 is a critical vulnerability published on June 23, 2020. In Apache Spark 2.4.5 and earlier, a standalone resource manager's master may be configured to require authentication (spark.authenticate) via a shared secret. When enabled, however, a specially-crafted RPC to the master can succeed in starting an application's resources on the Spark cluster, even…
When was CVE-2020-9480 disclosed?
CVE-2020-9480 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on June 23, 2020, with the most recent update on November 21, 2024. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2020-9480 actively exploited?
CVE-2020-9480 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 97.8% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-9480?
CVE-2020-9480 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2020-9480?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2020-9480, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2020-9480

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