What is CVE-2020-10189?

CVE-2020-10189 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Zohocorp Manageengine Desktop Central, classified under Deserialization of Untrusted Data. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2020-03-06.

How severe is CVE-2020-10189?

Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.

Is CVE-2020-10189 known to be exploited?

Yes. CVE-2020-10189 is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03), indicating it is being actively exploited. 55 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed.

Deserialization in Zohocorp Manageengine Desktop Central

CVE-2020-10189

Zoho ManageEngine Desktop Central before 10.0.474 allows remote code execution because of deserialization of untrusted data in getChartImage in the FileStorage class. This is related to the CewolfServlet and MDMLogUploaderServlet servlets.

Vulnerability class: Insecure Deserialization

Published 2020-03-06 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.999 (100.0th percentile), scored 2026-10-12.

Very high probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — among the top 0.1% most-likely-to-be-exploited CVEs. 100th percentile — 100.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

The 30-day trend appears once there are two daily scores.

Affected products

Zohocorp Manageengine Desktop Central

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-502 — Deserialization of Untrusted Data

CISA KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerabilities)

This CVE is on the CISA KEV catalog, added on 2021-11-03. CISA KEV inclusion means CISA has confirmed in-the-wild exploitation; US federal agencies are required to remediate within a published due date.

BOD 22-01 due date: 2022-05-03.

Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

srcincite.io/advisories/src-2020-0011/ (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)
www.zdnet.com/article/zoho-zero-day-published-on-twitter/ (Third Party Advisory)
srcincite.io/pocs/src-2020-0011.py.txt (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)
www.manageengine.com/products/desktop-central/remote-code-execution-vulnerabili… (Vendor Advisory)
packetstormsecurity.com/files/156730/ManageEngine-Desktop-Central-Java-Deserial… (Exploit, VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory)
cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/502.html (Third Party Advisory)
134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 (US Government Resource)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-10189?: CVE-2020-10189 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Zohocorp Manageengine Desktop Central, classified under Deserialization of Untrusted Data. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2020-03-06.
How severe is CVE-2020-10189?: Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.
Is CVE-2020-10189 known to be exploited?: Yes. CVE-2020-10189 is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03), indicating it is being actively exploited. 55 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed.