CVE-2020-8835 | Linux kernel bpf verifier vulnerability

Exp

In the Linux kernel 5.5.0 and newer, the bpf verifier (kernel/bpf/verifier.c) did not properly restrict the register bounds for 32-bit operations, leading to out-of-bounds reads and writes in kernel memory. The vulnerability also affects the Linux 5.4 stable series, starting with v5.4.7, as the introducing commit was backported to that branch. This vulnerability was fixed in 5.6.1, 5.5.14, and 5.4.29. (issue is aka ZDI-CAN-10780)

Published: 2020-04-02 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-8835 is rated High Exploit Risk (77/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 23.27%, 96th percentile). 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-2020-8835

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-8835

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 2026-04-08 26.05% 23.27% -2.79%
2 2026-03-06 26.55% 26.05% -0.50%
3 2026-02-22 — 26.55% —

Full EPSS history (33 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-8835

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:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/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:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
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:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
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.
 1.1 6.0 [email protected]
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-2020-8835

OS Trackers for CVE-2020-8835

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2020-8835 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-2020-8835
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-8835
suse high CVE-2020-8835 severity important: SUSE including 372 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, …), 588 product×package rows across 78 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE Enterprise Storage 5, … (78 product lines)): Known Not Affected 222, Fixed 209, Known Affected 157. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-8835/
ubuntu high CVE-2020-8835 high priority: Ubuntu including 27 source packages (linux, linux-aws, …), 162 status rows across 6 suites (bionic, eoan, focal, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 78, released 40, not-affected 39, ignored 5. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-8835

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-8835

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 5.4.7, < 5.4.29 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.5.0, < 5.5.14 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 5.6, < 5.6.1 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 30 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:30:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 31 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:31:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 32 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:32:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 19.10 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:19.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp cloud_backup — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:cloud_backup:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp hci_management_node — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:hci_management_node:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp solidfire — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:solidfire:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp steelstore_cloud_integrated_storage — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:steelstore_cloud_integrated_storage:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp a700s_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:a700s_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp 8300_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:8300_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp 8700_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:8700_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp a400_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:a400_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp a320_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:a320_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp c190_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:c190_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp a220_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:a220_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp fas2720_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:fas2720_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp fas2750_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:fas2750_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp a800_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:a800_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp h300s_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h300s_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp h500s_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h500s_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp h700s_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h700s_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp h300e_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h300e_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp h500e_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h500e_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp h700e_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h700e_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp h410s_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h410s_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp h610c_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h610c_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp h610s_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h610s_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp h615c_firmware — cpe:2.3:o:netapp:h615c_firmware:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-8835

URL Tags
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/07/20/1 Exploit Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/netdev/net-next.git/commit/?id=f2d67fec0b43edce8c416101cdc52e71145b5fef Patch Vendor Advisory
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=f2d67fec0b43edce8c416101cdc52e71145b5fef Patch Vendor Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/F7OONYGMSYBEFHLHZJK3GOI5Z553G4LD/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/TF4PQZBEPNXDSK5DOBMW54OCLP25FTCD/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/YXBWSHZ6DJIZVXKXGZPK6QPFCY7VKZEG/
https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20200330160324.15259-1-daniel%40iogearbox.net/T/
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20200430-0004/ Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4313-1/ Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-4313-1 Third Party Advisory
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/03/30/3 Mailing List Patch Third Party Advisory
https://www.thezdi.com/blog/2020/3/19/pwn2own-2020-day-one-results Third Party Advisory
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