CVE-2020-1712

A heap use-after-free vulnerability was found in systemd before version v245-rc1, where asynchronous Polkit queries are performed while handling dbus messages. A local unprivileged attacker can abuse this flaw to crash systemd services or potentially execute code and elevate their privileges, by sending specially crafted dbus messages.

Published: 2020-03-31 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-1712 is rated Low Risk (39.2/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.09%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-1712

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 0.33% 0.09% -0.23%
2 2025-03-29 0.05% 0.33% +0.27%
3 2023-03-07 — 0.05% —

Full EPSS history (7 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-1712

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H 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: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.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H 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: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.
 1.8 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-2020-1712

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-1712

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-1712 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (systemd), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-1712
gentoo high CVE-2020-1712: 1 GLSA(s) (202003-20), 1 atom(s) (sys-apps/systemd); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2020-1712
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-1712
suse high CVE-2020-1712 severity important: SUSE including 675 source package names (0.1.0:libsystemd0-234-24.46.1, 0.1.0:libudev1-234-24.46.1, …), 1087 product×package rows across 141 product lines (Container caasp/v4/389-ds, Container caasp/v4/busybox, … (141 product lines)): Fixed 917, Known Affected 157, Known Not Affected 13. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-1712/
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-1712 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (systemd), 17 status rows across 17 suites (bionic, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 15, needed 1, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-1712

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-1712

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
systemd_project systemd <= 244 cpe:2.3:a:systemd_project:systemd:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat ceph_storage 4.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:ceph_storage:4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat discovery — cpe:2.3:a:redhat:discovery:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat migration_toolkit 1.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:migration_toolkit:1.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openshift_container_platform 4.0 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift_container_platform:4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-1712

cvelogic Threat Intelligence