---
id: CVE-2020-15278
aliases:
  - GHSA-mp9m-g7qj-6vqr
  - PYSEC-2020-267
title: Unauthorized privilege escalation in Mod module
summary: Unauthorized privilege escalation in Mod module
severity: high
cvss: 7.7
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N'
vendor: red-discordbot
product: red-discordbot
ecosystem: pip
affected:
  - red-discordbot < 3.4.1
patched:
  - red-discordbot 3.4.1
published: '2020-10-27'
updated: '2026-09-10'
sourceUpdated: '2026-09-10T03:48:58.792206039Z'
source: OSV
sourceUrl: 'https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-mp9m-g7qj-6vqr'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/Cog-Creators/Red-DiscordBot/security/advisories/GHSA-mp9m-g7qj-6vqr
  - url: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-15278'
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/Cog-Creators/Red-DiscordBot/commit/726bfd38adfdfaef760412a68e01447b470f438b
  - url: 'https://github.com/Cog-Creators/Red-DiscordBot'
  - url: 'https://github.com/Cog-Creators/Red-DiscordBot/releases/tag/3.4.1'
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/red-discordbot/PYSEC-2020-267.yaml
tags:
  - osv
  - pip
epss: 0.01087
epssPercentile: 0.6388
ingestedAt: '2026-09-12T03:13:01.711Z'
---

## Overview

### Impact
An unauthorized privilege escalation exploit has been discovered in the Mod module: this exploit allows Discord users with a high privilege level within the guild to bypass hierarchy checks when the application is in a specific condition that is beyond that user's control. By abusing this exploit, it's possible to perform destructive actions within the guild the user has high privileges in.

### Patches
This exploit has been fixed on version & ``3.4.1``.

### Workarounds
Unloading the Mod module with ``unload mod`` __or__, disabling the ``massban`` command with ``command disable global massban`` can render this exploit not accessible. We still highly recommend updating to ``3.4.1`` to completely patch this issue.

### References
* https://github.com/Cog-Creators/Red-DiscordBot/commit/726bfd38adfdfaef760412a68e01447b470f438b

### For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
* Open an issue in [Cog-Creators/Red-DiscordBot](https://github.com/Cog-Creators/Red-DiscordBot)
* Over on our [Discord server](https://discord.gg/red)

## Affected packages

- `red-discordbot < 3.4.1`

## Remediation

Upgrade to a patched release:

- `red-discordbot 3.4.1`