CVE-2020-17354

Exp

LilyPond before 2.24 allows attackers to bypass the -dsafe protection mechanism via output-def-lookup or output-def-scope, as demonstrated by dangerous Scheme code in a .ly file that causes arbitrary code execution during conversion to a different file format. NOTE: in 2.24 and later versions, safe mode is removed, and the product no longer tries to block code execution when external files are used.

Published: 2023-04-15 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2020-17354 is rated High Exploit Risk (61.2/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.41%). 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-2020-17354

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-17354

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 0.06% 0.41% +0.35%
2 2026-05-20 0.02% 0.06% +0.05%
3 2025-11-21 0.02%

Full EPSS history (8 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-17354

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.6 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/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: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: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.
1.8 6.0 [email protected]
8.6 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/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: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: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.
1.8 6.0 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-17354

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-17354

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-17354 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (lilypond), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-17354
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-17354 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (lilypond), 13 status rows across 13 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 8, needs-triage 3, ignored 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-17354

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-17354

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
lilypond lilypond < 2.24.0 cpe:2.3:a:lilypond:lilypond:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-17354

cvelogic Threat Intelligence