CVE-2020-14314

A memory out-of-bounds read flaw was found in the Linux kernel before 5.9-rc2 with the ext3/ext4 file system, in the way it accesses a directory with broken indexing. This flaw allows a local user to crash the system if the directory exists. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to system availability.

Published: 2020-09-15 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-14314 is rated Low Risk (32.4/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.37%). 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-2020-14314

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 2026-06-15 0.02% 0.37% +0.35%
2 2026-03-15 0.06% 0.02% -0.03%
3 2025-12-20 — 0.06% —

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-14314

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

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:N/I:N/A:H 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: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.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 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: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.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]
2.1 2.0 LOW
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P 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:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 3.9 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-14314

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-14314

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-14314 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-14314
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-14314
suse medium CVE-2020-14314 severity moderate: SUSE including 639 source package names (amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20210304-hvm-ssd-x86_64, amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20220127-hvm-ssd-x86_64, …), 1058 product×package rows across 125 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-BYOS, … (125 product lines)): Fixed 819, Known Affected 157, Known Not Affected 82. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-14314/
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-14314 medium priority: Ubuntu including 169 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner, …), 2213 status rows across 17 suites (bionic, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1719, not-affected 246, released 202, ignored 46. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-14314

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-14314

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel <= 5.8.9 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 5.9.0 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.9.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 20.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
starwindsoftware starwind_virtual_san v8 cpe:2.3:a:starwindsoftware:starwind_virtual_san:v8:build12533:*:*:*:vsphere:*:*
starwindsoftware starwind_virtual_san v8 cpe:2.3:a:starwindsoftware:starwind_virtual_san:v8:build12658:*:*:*:vsphere:*:*
starwindsoftware starwind_virtual_san v8 cpe:2.3:a:starwindsoftware:starwind_virtual_san:v8:build12859:*:*:*:vsphere:*:*
starwindsoftware starwind_virtual_san v8 cpe:2.3:a:starwindsoftware:starwind_virtual_san:v8:build13170:*:*:*:vsphere:*:*
starwindsoftware starwind_virtual_san v8 cpe:2.3:a:starwindsoftware:starwind_virtual_san:v8:build13586:*:*:*:vsphere:*:*
starwindsoftware starwind_virtual_san v8 cpe:2.3:a:starwindsoftware:starwind_virtual_san:v8:build13861:*:*:*:vsphere:*:*

References for CVE-2020-14314

URL Tags
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2020-14314 Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=5872331b3d91820e14716632ebb56b1399b34fe1 Patch Vendor Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/09/msg00025.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/10/msg00032.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/10/msg00034.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-ext4/f53e246b-647c-64bb-16ec-135383c70ad7%40redhat.com/T/#u
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4576-1/ Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4578-1/ Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4579-1/ Third Party Advisory
https://www.starwindsoftware.com/security/sw-20210325-0003/ Third Party Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence