CVE-2020-16125 | gdm3 would start gnome-initial-setup if it cannot contact accountservice

Exp

gdm3 versions before 3.36.2 or 3.38.2 would start gnome-initial-setup if gdm3 can't contact the accountservice service via dbus in a timely manner; on Ubuntu (and potentially derivatives) this could be be chained with an additional issue that could allow a local user to create a new privileged account.

Published: 2020-11-10 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-16125 is rated High Exploit Risk (60.3/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.11%). 2 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-2020-16125

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-2020-16125

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 22.10% 1.11% -20.99%
2 2025-12-26 22.32% 22.10% -0.22%
3 2025-11-21 — 22.32% —

Full EPSS history (18 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-16125

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.2 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:P)
Hands-on access—USB, keyboard, opening the case—not something you do purely over the wire.
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: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.
 0.5 6.0 [email protected]
6.8 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:P)
Hands-on access—USB, keyboard, opening the case—not something you do purely over the wire.
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: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: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.
 0.9 5.9 [email protected]
4.6 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/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:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 3.9 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-16125

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-16125

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-16125 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (gdm3), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-16125
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-16125
suse high CVE-2020-16125 severity important: SUSE including 89 source package names (gdm, gdm-3.10.0.1-54.17.2, …), 210 product×package rows across 41 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE Enterprise Storage 5, … (41 product lines)): Fixed 206, Known Not Affected 4. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-16125/
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-16125 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (gdm3), 16 status rows across 16 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 13, DNE 1, needed 1, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-16125

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-16125

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
gnome gnome_display_manager < 3.36.2 cpe:2.3:a:gnome:gnome_display_manager:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
gnome gnome_display_manager >= 3.38.0, < 3.38.2 cpe:2.3:a:gnome:gnome_display_manager:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-16125

cvelogic Threat Intelligence