What is CVE-2020-5865?

CVE-2020-5865 is a medium-severity vulnerability in F5 nginx Controller, classified under Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information. CVSS score: 4.8/10. Published 2020-04-23.

How severe is CVE-2020-5865?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 4.8 out of 10.

Vulnerability in F5 nginx Controller

CVE-2020-5865

In versions prior to 3.3.0, the NGINX Controller is configured to communicate with its Postgres database server over unencrypted channels, making the communicated data vulnerable to interception via man-in-the-middle (MiTM) attacks.

Published 2020-04-23 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 4.8 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.004 (31.6th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 32nd percentile — 31.6% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.004 · change: +0.000

Affected products

F5 nginx Controller — versions 1.0.1
NetApp Cloud Backup
nginx Controller — versions < 3.3.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-319 — Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information

References

support.f5.com/csp/article/K21009022 (Vendor Advisory)
security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20200430-0005/ (Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-5865?: CVE-2020-5865 is a medium-severity vulnerability in F5 nginx Controller, classified under Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive Information. CVSS score: 4.8/10. Published 2020-04-23.
How severe is CVE-2020-5865?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 4.8 out of 10.