CVE-2020-16002

Exp

Use after free in PDFium in Google Chrome prior to 86.0.4240.111 allowed a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted PDF file.

Published: 2020-11-03 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2020-16002 is rated High Exploit Risk (76.8/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.43%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2020-16002

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-16002

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 2025-03-30 2.46% 1.43% -1.03%
2 2025-03-29 1.43% 2.46% +1.03%
3 2025-03-17 1.43%

Full EPSS history (13 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-16002

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/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: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: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 5.9 [email protected]
6.8 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/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:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
8.6 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-16002

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-16002

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-16002 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (chromium), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-16002
gentoo normal CVE-2020-16002: 1 GLSA(s) (202101-30), 1 atom(s) (dev-qt/qtwebengine); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2020-16002
redhat high https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-16002
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-16002 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (chromium-browser), 6 status rows across 6 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 3, DNE 2, not-affected 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-16002

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-16002

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
google chrome < 86.0.4240.111 cpe:2.3:a:google:chrome:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 31 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:31:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 32 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:32:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 33 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:33:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse backports_sle 15.0 cpe:2.3:a:opensuse:backports_sle:15.0:sp2:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-16002

URL Tags
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-11/msg00016.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://chromereleases.googleblog.com/2020/10/stable-channel-update-for-desktop_20.html Vendor Advisory
https://crbug.com/1137630 Exploit Issue Tracking Patch Vendor Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/24QFL4C3AZKMFVL7LVSYMU2DNE5VVUGS/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/4GWCWNHTTYOH6HSFUXPGPBB6J6JYZHZE/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/SC3U3H6AISVZB5PLZLLNF4HMQ4UFFL7M/
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202101-30 Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4824 Third Party Advisory
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