CVE-2020-5870: 
F5 BIG-IQ vulnerability analysis and mitigation

In BIG-IQ versions 5.2.0-7.0.0, a security vulnerability was identified where high availability (HA) synchronization mechanisms lack authentication when connecting to peer systems. This vulnerability was assigned CVE-2020-5870 and was disclosed on January 6, 2020 (MITRE).

The vulnerability exists in the high availability synchronization feature of BIG-IQ systems, where the system fails to implement authentication mechanisms when establishing connections with peer systems. This creates a significant security weakness in the HA implementation (F5 Support).

The lack of authentication in HA synchronization mechanisms could potentially allow unauthorized access to peer systems, compromising the security of the HA setup and potentially exposing sensitive configuration data.

The vulnerability requires network access to the affected BIG-IQ systems to exploit the HA synchronization mechanism. No public exploits were known at the time of disclosure.

F5 Networks has addressed this vulnerability through security updates. Users of affected BIG-IQ versions (5.2.0-7.0.0) should upgrade to a patched version as recommended by F5 Networks (F5 Support).