CVE-2020-17541

Exp

Libjpeg-turbo all version have a stack-based buffer overflow in the "transform" component. A remote attacker can send a malformed jpeg file to the service and cause arbitrary code execution or denial of service of the target service.

Published: 2021-06-01 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-17541 is rated High Exploit Risk (81.9/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.73%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +2.23% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. 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-2020-17541

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-17541

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 0.49% 2.73% +2.23%
2 2026-04-10 0.33% 0.49% +0.17%
3 2025-11-21 — 0.33% —

Full EPSS history (18 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-17541

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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.
 2.8 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-2020-17541

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-17541

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2020-17541: 1 source package rows (libjpeg-turbo); 15 state rows across 5 repos (3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 0, open 15. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2020-17541
debian unimportant CVE-2020-17541 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (libjpeg-turbo), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-17541
gentoo normal CVE-2020-17541: 1 GLSA(s) (202405-20), 1 atom(s) (media-libs/libjpeg-turbo); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2020-17541
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-17541
ubuntu low CVE-2020-17541 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libjpeg-turbo), 10 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 5, not-affected 4, ignored 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-17541

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-17541

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
libjpeg-turbo libjpeg-turbo < 2.0.4 cpe:2.3:a:libjpeg-turbo:libjpeg-turbo:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-17541

URL Tags
https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/121.html Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/libjpeg-turbo/libjpeg-turbo/issues/392 Exploit Issue Tracking Patch Third Party Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence