CVE-2020-16121 | PackageKit error messages leak presence and mimetype of files to unprivileged users

Exp

PackageKit provided detailed error messages to unprivileged callers that exposed information about file presence and mimetype of files that the user would be unable to determine on its own.

Published: 2020-11-07 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-16121 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Low severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.46%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). 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-2020-16121

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-16121

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 0.11% 0.46% +0.35%
2 2025-11-21 0.05% 0.11% +0.06%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.05% —

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-16121

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
3.3 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N 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:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.8 1.4 [email protected]
3.3 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N 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:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.8 1.4 [email protected]
2.1 2.0 LOW
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N 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:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 3.9 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-16121

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-16121

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-16121 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (packagekit), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-16121
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-16121
suse low CVE-2020-16121 severity low: SUSE including 113 source package names (PackageKit, PackageKit-1.1.10-12.10.1, …), 142 product×package rows across 27 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP1, SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP2, … (27 product lines)): Fixed 138, Known Not Affected 4. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-16121/
ubuntu low CVE-2020-16121 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (packagekit), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bionic, focal, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 3, DNE 1, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-16121

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-16121

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
packagekit_project packagekit — cpe:2.3:a:packagekit_project:packagekit:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 20.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-16121

cvelogic Threat Intelligence