CVE-2020-12801 | Crash-recovered MSOffice encrypted documents defaulted to not to using encryption on next save

If LibreOffice has an encrypted document open and crashes, that document is auto-saved encrypted. On restart, LibreOffice offers to restore the document and prompts for the password to decrypt it. If the recovery is successful, and if the file format of the recovered document was not LibreOffice's default ODF file format, then affected versions of LibreOffice default that subsequent saves of the document are unencrypted. This may lead to a user accidentally saving a MSOffice file format document unencrypted while believing it to be encrypted. This issue affects: LibreOffice 6-3 series versions prior to 6.3.6; 6-4 series versions prior to 6.4.3.

Published: 2020-05-18 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-12801 is rated Low Risk (36.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.21%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-12801

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-11-21 0.14% 0.21% +0.07%
2 2025-11-18 0.15% 0.14% -0.02%
3 2025-03-30 — 0.15% —

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-12801

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 1.4 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-12801

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-12801

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2020-12801: 1 source package rows (libreoffice); 11 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 7, open 4. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2020-12801
debian low CVE-2020-12801 low priority: Debian including 1 source packages (libreoffice), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-12801
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-12801
suse medium CVE-2020-12801 severity moderate: SUSE including 755 source package names (libreoffice-6.4.4.2-11.2, libreoffice-6.4.4.2-43.65.5, …), 898 product×package rows across 13 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP4, SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP5, … (13 product lines)): Fixed 898. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-12801/
ubuntu low CVE-2020-12801 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libreoffice), 12 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 7, ignored 2, released 2, DNE 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-12801

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-12801

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
libreoffice libreoffice >= 6.3.0, < 6.3.6 cpe:2.3:a:libreoffice:libreoffice:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
libreoffice libreoffice >= 6.4.0, < 6.4.3 cpe:2.3:a:libreoffice:libreoffice:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse leap 15.1 cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:15.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-12801

cvelogic Threat Intelligence