CVE-2020-14040

The x/text package before 0.3.3 for Go has a vulnerability in encoding/unicode that could lead to the UTF-16 decoder entering an infinite loop, causing the program to crash or run out of memory. An attacker could provide a single byte to a UTF16 decoder instantiated with UseBOM or ExpectBOM to trigger an infinite loop if the String function on the Decoder is called, or the Decoder is passed to golang.org/x/text/transform.String.

Published: 2020-06-17 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-14040 is rated Low Risk (32/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.03%). 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-2020-14040

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 0.33% 0.03% -0.30%
2 2025-11-18 0.01% 0.33% +0.32%
3 2025-03-17 — 0.01% —

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-14040

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P 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:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-14040

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2020-14040

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-14040

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-14040 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (golang-golang-x-text), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-14040
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-14040
suse high CVE-2020-14040 severity important: SUSE including 36 source package names (buildah-1.15.1-2.module+el8.3.0+8221+97165c3f, buildah-tests-1.15.1-2.module+el8.3.0+8221+97165c3f, …), 36 product×package rows across 1 product lines (SUSE Liberty Linux 8): Fixed 36. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-14040/
ubuntu low CVE-2020-14040 low priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (golang-golang-x-text, golang-x-text), 33 status rows across 17 suites (bionic, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 13, not-affected 9, ignored 5, released 5, needed 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-14040

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-14040

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
golang text < 0.3.3 cpe:2.3:a:golang:text:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 32 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:32:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-14040

cvelogic Threat Intelligence