CVE-2020-27786

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel’s implementation of MIDI, where an attacker with a local account and the permissions to issue ioctl commands to midi devices could trigger a use-after-free issue. A write to this specific memory while freed and before use causes the flow of execution to change and possibly allow for memory corruption or privilege escalation. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to confidentiality, integrity, as well as system availability.

Published: 2020-12-11 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-27786 is rated Moderate Risk (51.9/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.66%). 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-2020-27786

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 7.01% 1.66% -5.35%
2 2026-06-09 6.62% 7.01% +0.40%
3 2026-06-07 — 6.62% —

Full EPSS history (38 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-27786

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]
7.2 2.0 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C 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:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 3.9 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-27786

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-27786

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-27786 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-27786
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-27786
suse high CVE-2020-27786 severity important: SUSE including 727 source package names (amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20210304-hvm-ssd-x86_64, amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20220127-hvm-ssd-x86_64, …), 1194 product×package rows across 116 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-BYOS, … (116 product lines)): Fixed 1043, Known Affected 126, Known Not Affected 25. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-27786/
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-27786 medium priority: Ubuntu including 115 source packages (linux, linux-aws, …), 1193 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 857, not-affected 159, released 155, ignored 21, needed 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-27786

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-27786

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel < 4.4.224 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 4.5, < 4.9.224 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 4.10, < 4.14.181 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 4.15, < 4.19.124 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 4.20, < 5.4.42 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.5, < 5.6.14 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openshift_container_platform 4.4 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift_container_platform:4.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openshift_container_platform 4.5 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift_container_platform:4.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openshift_container_platform 4.6 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift_container_platform:4.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_mrg 2.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_mrg:2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp cloud_backup — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:cloud_backup:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp solidfire_baseboard_management_controller — cpe:2.3:h:netapp:solidfire_baseboard_management_controller:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-27786

cvelogic Threat Intelligence