CVE-2020-6078

Exp

An exploitable denial-of-service vulnerability exists in the message-parsing functionality of Videolabs libmicrodns 0.1.0. When parsing mDNS messages in mdns_recv, the return value of the mdns_read_header function is not checked, leading to an uninitialized variable usage that eventually results in a null pointer dereference, leading to service crash. An attacker can send a series of mDNS messages to trigger this vulnerability.

Published: 2020-03-24 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2020-6078 is rated High Exploit Risk (68.2/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.50%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: 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-2020-6078

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-6078

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 2026-05-22 0.37% 0.50% +0.13%
2 2026-03-09 1.41% 0.37% -1.04%
3 2025-11-21 1.41%

Full EPSS history (20 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-6078

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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: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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
3.9 3.6 [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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: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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
3.9 3.6 [email protected]
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-6078

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-6078

vendor priority summary link
alpine CVE-2020-6078: 1 source package rows (vlc); 7 state rows across 7 repos (3.17-community, 3.18-community, 3.19-community, 3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 7, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2020-6078
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-6078 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (libmicrodns, vlc), 8 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 8. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-6078
gentoo normal CVE-2020-6078: 1 GLSA(s) (202005-10), 1 atom(s) (net-libs/libmicrodns); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2020-6078
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-6078 medium priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (libmicrodns, vlc), 29 status rows across 15 suites (bionic, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 11, ignored 8, not-affected 6, released 3, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-6078

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-6078

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
videolabs libmicrodns 0.1.0 cpe:2.3:a:videolabs:libmicrodns:0.1.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-6078

URL Tags
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202005-10 Third Party Advisory
https://talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2020-1001 Exploit Technical Description Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4671 Third Party Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence