CVE-2020-13844 [Medium] | Security Vulnerability in Cortex-A32 Firmware

Arm Armv8-A core implementations utilizing speculative execution past unconditional changes in control flow may allow unauthorized disclosure of information to an attacker with local user access via a side-channel analysis, aka "straight-line speculation."

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2025-09-16	0.20%	0.08%	-0.12%
2	2025-03-30	0.61%	0.20%	-0.40%
3	2025-03-29	—	0.61%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2025-09-16

0.20%

0.08%

-0.12%

2025-03-30

0.61%

0.20%

-0.40%

2025-03-29

—

0.61%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
5.5	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:L) They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by. 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:L) A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin. 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:H) Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way. Integrity (I:N) Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged. Availability (A:N) Service keeps running; no real outage angle.	1.8	3.6	[email protected]
2.1	2.0	LOW	`AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N` Click to expand Access vector (AV:L) Requires local access to the target system. 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.	3.9	2.9	[email protected]

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

5.5

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand

Attack vector (AV:L): They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
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:L): A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
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:H): Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N): Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N): Service keeps running; no real outage angle.

1.8

3.6

[email protected]

2.1

2.0

LOW

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand

Access vector (AV:L): Requires local access to the target system.
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.

3.9

2.9

[email protected]

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-13844

vendor	priority	summary	link
`redhat`	medium	—	https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-13844
`suse`	medium	CVE-2020-13844 severity moderate: SUSE including 1757 source package names (0.0.17-1.1:libgcc_s1-10.2.1+git583-1.3.4, 0.0.17-1.1:libstdc++6-10.2.1+git583-1.3.4, …), 6916 product×package rows across 684 product lines (Container bci/bci-base-fips, Container bci/bci-init, … (684 product lines)): Fixed 5739, Known Not Affected 554, Will Not Fix 466, Known Affected 157.	https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-13844/
`ubuntu`	medium	CVE-2020-13844 medium priority: Ubuntu including 54 source packages (gcc-10, gcc-3.3, …), 918 status rows across 17 suites (bionic, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 626, ignored 119, deferred 89, needs-triage 52, not-affected 27, released 5.	https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-13844

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-13844

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
arm	cortex-a32_firmware	—	cpe:2.3:o:arm:cortex-a32_firmware:-:::::::*
arm	cortex-a35_firmware	—	cpe:2.3:o:arm:cortex-a35_firmware:-:::::::*
arm	cortex-a53_firmware	—	cpe:2.3:o:arm:cortex-a53_firmware:-:::::::*
arm	cortex-a57_firmware	—	cpe:2.3:o:arm:cortex-a57_firmware:-:::::::*
arm	cortex-a72_firmware	—	cpe:2.3:o:arm:cortex-a72_firmware:-:::::::*
arm	cortex-a73_firmware	—	cpe:2.3:o:arm:cortex-a73_firmware:-:::::::*
arm	cortex-a34_firmware	—	cpe:2.3:o:arm:cortex-a34_firmware:-:::::::*
opensuse	leap	15.1	cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:15.1:::::::*
opensuse	leap	15.2	cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:15.2:::::::*

References for CVE-2020-13844

URL	Tags
http://lists.llvm.org/pipermail/llvm-dev/2020-June/142109.html	Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-10/msg00039.html	Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-10/msg00040.html	Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://developer.arm.com/support/arm-security-updates/speculative-processor-vulnerability	Vendor Advisory
https://developer.arm.com/support/arm-security-updates/speculative-processor-vulnerability/downloads/straight-line-speculation	Vendor Advisory
https://developer.arm.com/support/arm-security-updates/speculative-processor-vulnerability/frequently-asked-questions	Vendor Advisory
https://gcc.gnu.org/pipermail/gcc-patches/2020-June/547520.html	Patch Third Party Advisory

URL

CVE-2020-13844

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-13844

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-13844

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-13844

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-13844

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-13844

References for CVE-2020-13844