What is CVE-2020-14194?

CVE-2020-14194 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Zulip Server, classified under Improper Privilege Management. CVSS score: 5.4/10. Published 2020-08-21.

How severe is CVE-2020-14194?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.4 out of 10.

Is CVE-2020-14194 known to be exploited?

1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Privilege escalation in Zulip Server

CVE-2020-14194

Zulip Server before 2.1.5 allows reverse tabnapping via a topic header link.

Vulnerability class: Privilege Escalation

Published 2020-08-21 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.4 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.007 (50.7th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 51st percentile — 50.7% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.007 · newest: 0.007 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Zulip Server

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-269 — Improper Privilege Management

Public proof-of-concept exploits

SPV-TIFS/SPV-TIFS

References

blog.zulip.com/2020/06/17/zulip-server-2-1-5-security-release/ (Release Notes, Vendor Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-14194?: CVE-2020-14194 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Zulip Server, classified under Improper Privilege Management. CVSS score: 5.4/10. Published 2020-08-21.
How severe is CVE-2020-14194?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.4 out of 10.
Is CVE-2020-14194 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.