CVE-2020-35512

A use-after-free flaw was found in D-Bus Development branch <= 1.13.16, dbus-1.12.x stable branch <= 1.12.18, and dbus-1.10.x and older branches <= 1.10.30 when a system has multiple usernames sharing the same UID. When a set of policy rules references these usernames, D-Bus may free some memory in the heap, which is still used by data structures necessary for the other usernames sharing the UID, possibly leading to a crash or other undefined behaviors

Published: 2021-02-15 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2020-35512 is rated Low Risk (34.4/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.03%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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-2020-35512

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 2025-11-21 0.08% 0.03% -0.04%
2 2025-11-18 0.04% 0.08% +0.03%
3 2023-03-07 0.04%

Full EPSS history (7 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-35512

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-2020-35512

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-35512

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-35512 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (dbus), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-35512
redhat low https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-35512
suse high CVE-2020-35512 severity important: SUSE including 340 source package names (0.1.0:dbus-1-1.12.2-8.6.1, 0.1.0:libdbus-1-3-1.12.2-8.6.1, …), 641 product×package rows across 134 product lines (Container bci/bci-init, Container caasp/v4/cilium, … (134 product lines)): Fixed 604, Known Affected 33, Known Not Affected 4. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-35512/
ubuntu low CVE-2020-35512 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (dbus), 16 status rows across 16 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 11, released 4, needed 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-35512

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-35512

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
freedesktop dbus 1.12.20 cpe:2.3:a:freedesktop:dbus:1.12.20:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-35512

cvelogic Threat Intelligence