Threats / Pi-hole / CVE-2020-8816
CVE-2020-8816
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-06-22
Pi-hole AdminLTE vulnerability
Pi-hole AdminLTE v4.3.2 allows remote code execution through crafted DHCP static lease configuration by authenticated dashboard users, exploiting OS command injection.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
Authenticated attackers with dashboard access can execute arbitrary system commands via malicious DHCP lease parameters, achieving full system compromise on Pi-hole installations.
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreExploit available
Public proof-of-concept exploit code is cataloged for this vulnerability.We link the existence of the exploit; we do not host or redistribute payloads.
Reported exploitation
2 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 2021-12-10).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.77847 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
Affected: Pi-hole, AdminLTE. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-78 OS Command Injection — weakness family: Injection.CWE assignment from the public NVD record; the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
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 authenticate to the Pi-hole dashboard using valid credentials.
Business
Insider threat or credential compromise creates initial access vector to administrative interface.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I craft a DHCP static lease entry containing shell metacharacters or command injection payloads.
Business
Lack of input sanitization in lease configuration processing enables code injection.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I submit the malicious lease configuration, triggering unsanitized command execution on the host system.
Business
Arbitrary code runs with Pi-hole service privileges, compromising DNS infrastructure and potentially the entire network.
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