In Firecracker 0.20.x before 0.20.1 and 0.21.x before 0.21.2, the network stack can freeze under heavy ingress traffic. This can result in a denial of service on the microVM when it is configured with a single network interface, and an availability problem for the microVM network interface on which the issue is triggered.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2020-16843 is rated Moderate Risk (50.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.67%). Core evidence: EPSS rose +1.18% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
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 | 0.50% | 1.67% | +1.18% |
| 2 | 2025-11-21 | 0.38% | 0.50% | +0.11% |
| 3 | 2025-11-18 | — | 0.38% | — |
Full EPSS history (13 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.9 | 3.1 | MEDIUM |
|
2.2 | 3.6 | [email protected] |
| 4.3 | 2.0 | MEDIUM |
|
8.6 | 2.9 | [email protected] |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| amazon | firecracker | 0.20.0 | cpe:2.3:a:amazon:firecracker:0.20.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| amazon | firecracker | 0.21.0 | cpe:2.3:a:amazon:firecracker:0.21.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| amazon | firecracker | 0.21.1 | cpe:2.3:a:amazon:firecracker:0.21.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| URL | Tags |
|---|---|
| http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/08/13/1 | Mailing List Third Party Advisory |
| https://github.com/firecracker-microvm/firecracker/issues/2057 | Mitigation Third Party Advisory |
| https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/08/13/1 | Mailing List Third Party Advisory |