Threats / Plex / CVE-2020-5741
CVE-2020-5741
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-09-19
Plex Media Server vulnerability
Plex Media Server allows remote code execution through the Camera Upload feature when an attacker gains access to an administrator's Plex account, enabling malicious file execution on the server.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
An authenticated attacker with administrator account access can upload a crafted file via Camera Upload to achieve arbitrary code execution on the Media Server, potentially compromising the entire system and data stored within it.
CISA KEV Yes · 2023-03-104EPSS 0.72936 (verify live)5CVSS 7.2 (CISA)3CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: total3Exploit Weaponized · public exploit · Metasploit module11
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
3 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2023-03-10).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.72936 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 7.2 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: Plex, Media Server. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-502 Deserialization of Untrusted Data — weakness family: Injection.CWE assignment from the public NVD record (may be stale); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 1036 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
Public exploit available
Public exploit tooling is catalogued for this CVE (a functional/weaponized public exploit). Catalog entries: Metasploit module. We link the catalog page(s) only — no payload or code is hosted or restated here.Link, never host — the catalog page is the source; basicsecurity.net does not redistribute payloads.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I compromise or obtain credentials for a Plex administrator account through phishing, credential stuffing, or social engineering.
Business
Administrator account credentials are exposed, creating a direct pathway for unauthorized access to critical media infrastructure.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I authenticate to the Plex Media Server using the compromised administrator credentials and access the Camera Upload feature.
Business
The authentication layer fails to prevent misuse of legitimate administrative access for malicious purposes.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I craft a malicious file and upload it through the Camera Upload mechanism, which the server deserializes and executes without proper validation.
Business
Arbitrary code execution occurs on the Media Server, allowing complete system compromise, data theft, lateral movement, or service disruption.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05
Coverage & confidence
— what we know, and what we don’tEstablished (cited)
Coverage gaps — stated, not hidden
Disclosure & credit2
Catalogued by tenableCNA
Credited with finding itNo finder is named in the public CVE record or the scanned vendor advisory — attribution scoped to the sources checked.
Found an error? Propose a correction.
A correction is a cited counter-claim — it must cite a source,
gets reviewed by a second human, and is never auto-applied. See the
correction convention and our identity
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