CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2020-4045 — SSB-DB version 20.0.0 has an information disclosure vulnerability

High CVSS 7.5

SSB-DB version 20.0.0 has an information disclosure vulnerability. The get() method is supposed to only decrypt messages when you explicitly ask it to, but there is a bug where it's decrypting any message that it can. This means that it is returning the decrypted content of private messages, which a malicious peer could use to get access to private data. This only affects peers running SSB-DB@20.0.0 who also have private messages, and is only known to be exploitable if you're also running SSB-OOO (default in SSB-Server), which exposes a thin wrapper around get() to anonymous peers. This is fixed in version 20.0.1. Note that users of SSB-Server verion 16.0.0 should upgrade to 16.0.1 to get the fixed version of SSB-DB.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.5 (3.1)
Published
2020-06-11
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-200

Affected products

  • scuttlebutt / ssb-db / 20.0.0

Matched remediation archetype

Information disclosure and sensitive data exposure

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Trace sensitive data through responses, errors, logs, metrics, traces, caches, exports, files, backups, and client bundles.
  • Identify affected subjects, tenants, retention windows, access controls, and downstream copies without opening unnecessary sensitive records.
  • Review metadata, timing, status, length, and existence signals as well as direct content disclosure.

Remediate safely

  • Minimize collection and output, apply field-level authorization and redaction at a centralized boundary, and return generic external errors.
  • Remove secrets and sensitive data from logs, artifacts, URLs, caches, and client-side bundles; rotate credentials that may have been exposed.
  • Update the affected component and add synthetic-data tests for response, error, observability, and export paths.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

The detailed catalog view below loads this exact record, its source evidence, and the full seven-phase agentic change plan.