CVE-2020-14339

A flaw was found in libvirt, where it leaked a file descriptor for `/dev/mapper/control` into the QEMU process. This file descriptor allows for privileged operations to happen against the device-mapper on the host. This flaw allows a malicious guest user or process to perform operations outside of their standard permissions, potentially causing serious damage to the host operating system. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to confidentiality, integrity, as well as system availability.

Published: 2020-12-03 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-14339 is rated Moderate Risk (47/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.42%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

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-2020-14339

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 0.20% 0.42% +0.22%
2 2026-05-31 0.05% 0.20% +0.14%
3 2025-03-30 — 0.05% —

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-14339

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/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:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 2.0 6.0 [email protected]
7.2 2.0 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C 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:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 3.9 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-14339

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-14339

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2020-14339: 1 source package rows (libvirt); 9 state rows across 8 repos (3.12-main, 3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 9, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2020-14339
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-14339 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (libvirt), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-14339
gentoo low CVE-2020-14339: 2 GLSA(s) (202101-22, 202210-06), 2 atom(s) (app-emulation/libvirt, dev-python/libvirt-python); latest impact low. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2020-14339
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-14339
suse high CVE-2020-14339 severity important: SUSE including 704 source package names (0.38.1:libvirt-client-6.0.0-13.3.1, 0.38.1:libvirt-daemon-6.0.0-13.3.1, …), 1094 product×package rows across 57 product lines (Container suse/sles/15.2/virt-handler, Container suse/sles/15.2/virt-launcher, … (57 product lines)): Fixed 552, Known Not Affected 311, Known Affected 231. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-14339/
ubuntu low CVE-2020-14339 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libvirt), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bionic, focal, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 4, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-14339

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-14339

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
redhat libvirt >= 6.2.0, < 6.7.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:libvirt:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:advanced_virtualization:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-14339

URL Tags
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1860069 Issue Tracking Patch Third Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202101-22 Third Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202210-06 Third Party Advisory
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