CVE-2020-21548

Exp

Libsixel 1.8.3 contains a heap-based buffer overflow in the sixel_encode_highcolor function in tosixel.c.

Published: 2021-09-17 Last update: 2026-04-24 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-21548 is rated High Exploit Risk (69.4/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.38%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). 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-2020-21548

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-21548

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 0.95% 0.38% -0.57%
2 2025-03-29 0.39% 0.95% +0.56%
3 2025-03-17 — 0.39% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-21548

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-2020-21548

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2020-21548

GHSA-rqxx-8p8c-6h26 · Severity: high — Libsixel 1.8.3 contains a heap-based buffer overflow in the sixel_encode_highcolor function in...

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-21548

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-21548 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (libsixel), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-21548
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-21548 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (libsixel), 15 status rows across 15 suites (bionic, focal, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 10, needs-triage 3, DNE 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-21548

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-21548

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
saitoha libsixel 1.8.3 cpe:2.3:a:saitoha:libsixel:1.8.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-21548

URL Tags
https://github.com/saitoha/libsixel/issues/116 Exploit Issue Tracking Patch Third Party Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence