CVE-2020-8648

Exp

There is a use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel through 5.5.2 in the n_tty_receive_buf_common function in drivers/tty/n_tty.c.

Published: 2020-02-05 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-8648 is rated High Exploit Risk (60.3/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.66%). 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-2020-8648

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-8648

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 0.04% 0.66% +0.62%
2 2025-11-21 0.06% 0.04% -0.02%
3 2025-11-18 — 0.06% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-8648

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.1 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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: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.
 1.8 5.2 [email protected]
3.6 2.0 LOW
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:P 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:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 3.9 4.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-8648

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-8648

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-8648 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-2020-8648
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-8648
suse medium CVE-2020-8648 severity moderate: SUSE including 646 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, …), 956 product×package rows across 119 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-BYOS, … (119 product lines)): Fixed 779, Known Affected 157, Known Not Affected 20. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-8648/
ubuntu medium CVE-2020-8648 medium priority: Ubuntu including 112 source packages (linux, linux-aws, …), 1145 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, eoan, focal, groovy, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 813, not-affected 162, released 153, ignored 17. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-8648

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-8648

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel <= 5.5.2 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse leap 15.1 cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:15.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp active_iq_unified_manager — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:active_iq_unified_manager:-:*:*:*:*:vmware_vsphere:*:*
netapp cloud_backup — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:cloud_backup:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp hci_baseboard_management_controller h410c cpe:2.3:a:netapp:hci_baseboard_management_controller:h410c:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp solidfire_baseboard_management_controller — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:solidfire_baseboard_management_controller:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
broadcom brocade_fabric_operating_system_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:broadcom:brocade_fabric_operating_system_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-8648

URL Tags
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-03/msg00021.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=206361 Exploit Issue Tracking Vendor Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/06/msg00011.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/06/msg00012.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/06/msg00013.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20200924-0004/ Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4342-1/ Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4344-1/ Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4345-1/ Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4346-1/ Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4698 Third Party Advisory
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