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Fencer Intel
critical 9.8

CVE-2019-20478 json

In ruamel.yaml through 0.16.7, the load method allows remote code execution if the application calls this method with an untrusted argument.

published 6y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2019-11022

cvss
9.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
6.8%
EPSS 6.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 94%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In ruamel.yaml through 0.16.7, the load method allows remote code execution if the application calls this method with an untrusted argument. In other words, this issue affects developers who are unaware of the need to use methods such as safe_load in these use cases.

Patch / fix

  • python-ruamel.yaml openSUSE Tumbleweed 0.19.1-2.1
  • python-ruaeml.yaml openSUSE Tumbleweed 0.18.6-1.2

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:11904-1openSUSE-SU-2024:14164-1

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2019-20478 updated cvss 9.8

python-ruamel-yaml: code execution through load() method with an untrusted argument

  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 3.11 python-openshift, python2-openshift Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 python-openshift, python2-openshift, python3-openshift Red Hat OpenStack Platform 15 (Stein) python3-ruamel-yaml Red Hat OpenStack Platform 16 (Train) python-ruamel-yaml, python3-ruamel-yaml
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Use the 'safe_load' method in place of 'load' if loading untrusted data. Alternatively use: yaml=YAML(typ='safe') yaml.load() Reference: https://yaml.readthedocs.io/en/latest/basicuse.html”
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 3.11 openshift3/ose-logging-curator5 Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift4/ose-logging-curator5 Red Hat Storage 3 python2-ruamel-yaml
    not affected: vulnerable code not present “Use the 'safe_load' method in place of 'load' if loading untrusted data. Alternatively use: yaml=YAML(typ='safe') yaml.load() Reference: https://yaml.readthedocs.io/en/latest/basicuse.html”

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

6.83% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 94% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 10.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.