CVE-2020-15999

Exp

Heap buffer overflow in Freetype in Google Chrome prior to 86.0.4240.111 allowed a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page.

Published: 2020-11-02 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-15999 is rated Critical Active Threat (100/100): CVSS Critical severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 50.63%, 99th percentile). CISA KEV confirms active exploitation (added 2021-11-03) affecting Google / Chrome FreeType. a weakness (CWE-120) Unauthenticated remote administrative access may be possible. EPSS rose +6.33% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. The CISA remediation deadline has passed—treat as an emergency patch priority.

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

CISA KEV Record for CVE-2020-15999

Name: Google Chrome FreeType Heap Buffer Overflow Vulnerability · CISA KEV detail

Exploit added: 2021-11-03

Action due: 2021-11-17

Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2020-15999

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-15999

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 2026-06-20 44.30% 50.63% +6.33%
2 2026-06-15 93.03% 44.30% -48.73%
3 2026-05-19 — 93.03% —

Full EPSS history (51 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-15999

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.6 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
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.
 2.8 6.0 [email protected]
9.6 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
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.
 2.8 6.0 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/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:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
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.
 8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-15999

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2020-15999

GHSA-pv36-h7jh-qm62 · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: nuget — Heap buffer overflow in CefSharp

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-15999

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2020-15999: 5 source package rows (firefox, firefox-esr, freetype, librewolf, thunderbird); 34 state rows across 17 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-community, 3.17-main, 3.18-community, 3.18-main, 3.19-community, 3.19-main, 3.20-community, 3.20-main, 3.21-community, 3.21-main, 3.22-community, 3.22-main, edge-community, edge-main); fixed 34, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2020-15999
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-15999 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (freetype), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-15999
gentoo normal CVE-2020-15999: 4 GLSA(s) (202010-07, 202011-12, 202012-04, 202401-19), 7 atom(s) (mail-client/thunderbird, mail-client/thunderbird-bin, …); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2020-15999
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-15999
suse high CVE-2020-15999 severity important: SUSE including 451 source package names (0.3.2-1.2:libfreetype6-2.10.1-4.8.1, 0.3.32-3.4:libfreetype6-2.10.1-4.8.1, …), 1151 product×package rows across 428 product lines (Container bci/kiwi, Container bci/openjdk, … (428 product lines)): Fixed 1038, Known Not Affected 67, Known Affected 46. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-15999/
ubuntu high CVE-2020-15999 high priority: Ubuntu including 18 source packages (android, chromium-browser, …), 270 status rows across 15 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 144, DNE 91, released 19, needs-triage 15, ignored 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-15999

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-15999

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
google chrome < 86.0.4240.111 cpe:2.3:a:google:chrome:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
freetype freetype >= 2.6.0, < 2.10.4 cpe:2.3:a:freetype:freetype:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 31 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:31:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse backports_sle 15.0 cpe:2.3:a:opensuse:backports_sle:15.0:sp2:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp ontap_select_deploy_administration_utility — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:ontap_select_deploy_administration_utility:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-15999

URL Tags
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-11/msg00016.html Broken Link Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/Nov/33 Mailing List Not Applicable Third Party Advisory
https://chromereleases.googleblog.com/2020/10/stable-channel-update-for-desktop_20.html Third Party Advisory
https://crbug.com/1139963 Exploit Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/p/rca-cve-2020-15999.html Exploit Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/J3QVIGAAJ4D62YEJAJJWMCCBCOQ6TVL7/ Release Notes
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202011-12 Third Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202012-04 Third Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202401-19 Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4824 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20240812-0001/ Third Party Advisory
https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-15999 US Government Resource
cvelogic Threat Intelligence