CVE-2020-17448

Telegram Desktop through 2.1.13 allows a spoofed file type to bypass the Dangerous File Type Execution protection mechanism, as demonstrated by use of the chat window with a filename that lacks an extension.

Published: 2020-08-11 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2020-17448 is rated Moderate Risk (46.3/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.22%). 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.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-17448

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 2026-02-14 0.67% 0.22% -0.45%
2 2025-03-30 0.55% 0.67% +0.12%
3 2025-03-29 0.55%

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-17448

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:N/UI:R/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: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: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]
6.8 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
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.
8.6 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-17448

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-17448

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-17448 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (telegram-desktop), 4 status rows across 4 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid): resolved 4. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-17448
gentoo low CVE-2020-17448: 1 GLSA(s) (202101-34), 1 atom(s) (net-im/telegram-desktop); latest impact low. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2020-17448
ubuntu low CVE-2020-17448 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (telegram-desktop), 16 status rows across 16 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 8, not-affected 5, needs-triage 2, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-17448

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-17448

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
telegram telegram_desktop <= 2.1.13 cpe:2.3:a:telegram:telegram_desktop:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-17448

cvelogic Threat Intelligence