Vulnerability report

Trusted Third Party Report Confirmed Confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2020-9934

iOS

Apple / iOS · affected before iOS 13.6 and iPadOS 13.6

Watch CVE-2020-9934 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 5.5 · Medium
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Trusted Third Party Report
EPSS
3.2%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2020-9934 is a vulnerability affecting Apple iOS, macOS. An issue existed in the handling of environment variables. This issue was addressed with improved validation.

Have exploitation attempts been observed?

Yes. Exploitation attempts have been reported for this vulnerability. Previdian lists it as a known exploited vulnerability. Listed in CISA KEV. Confidence is confirmed.

Who is affected?

Apple / iOS and macOS, including affected before iOS 13.6 and iPadOS 13.6 and affected before macOS Catalina 10.15.6.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

An issue existed in the handling of environment variables

An issue existed in the handling of environment variables. This issue was addressed with improved validation.

This issue is fixed in iOS 13.6 and iPadOS 13.6, macOS Catalina 10.15.6. A local user may be able to view sensitive user information.

Apple Affected
iOS
Before iOS 13.6 and iPadOS 13.6
Apple Affected
macOS
Before macOS Catalina 10.15.6
Published
16 Oct 2020
Exploitation Attempts Reported
08 Sep 2022
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None

Tags

cisa nessus_scanner ios macos

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Evidence of exploitation attempts

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploitation Attempts Observed in the Wild

CISA

Recorded 08 Sep 2022

A trusted third party reported exploitation attempts.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
CISA First 2022-09-08 00:00 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Nessus https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/141100 02 Jun 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

5.5 Medium

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

EPSS

3.2%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

All CVSS Scores

CVSS v3.1 5.5 Medium

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

CVSS v2.0 2.1 Low

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation attempts

  1. 09:27 UTC

    Nessus plugin available

    Scanner coverage available

  2. 00:00 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  3. 16:51 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  4. 00:00 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

Start 14-day Pro trial Read API docs
  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2020-9934

Sample API response 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2020-9934",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 5.5,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.03208,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}