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Fencer Intel
high 7.8

CVE-2020-13974 json

An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel 4.4 through 5.7.1.

published 6y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2020-6145

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.6%
EPSS 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 47%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel 4.4 through 5.7.1. drivers/tty/vt/keyboard.c has an integer overflow if k_ascii is called several times in a row, aka CID-b86dab054059. NOTE: Members in the community argue that the integer overflow does not lead to a security issue in this case.

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 4.4.227, 4.9.227, 4.14.184, 4.19.128, 5.4.46, 5.6.18, 5.7.2
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.7.6-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-13974

  • linux Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-186.216
  • linux Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-115.116
  • linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-45.49
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-1111.123
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1080.84
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1022.22
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.15.0-1081.92~16.04.1
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1022.22

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2020-13974

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel RHEL 8 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8
  • perf RHEL 8 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8
  • bpftool RHEL 8 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8
  • kernel-core RHEL 8 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8
  • kernel-tools RHEL 8 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8
  • python3-perf RHEL 8 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8
  • kernel-modules RHEL 8 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8
  • kernel-zfcpdump RHEL 8 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8

red hat advisories RHSA-2022:1988RHSA-2022:1975

  • kernel-rt Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.28.1
  • kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.28.1
  • kernel-rt_debug Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.28.1
  • kernel-source-rt Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.28.1
  • kernel-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.13.1
  • kernel-syms-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.13.1
  • kernel-rt_debug SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.13.1
  • kernel-source-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.13.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2020:2487-1SUSE-SU-2020:2478-1SUSE-SU-2020:2156-1SUSE-SU-2020:2152-1SUSE-SU-2020:2134-1SUSE-SU-2020:2121-1

  • kernel-rt openSUSE Leap 15.2 5.3.18-lp152.3.5.1
  • kernel-syms-rt openSUSE Leap 15.2 5.3.18-lp152.3.5.1
  • kernel-rt_debug openSUSE Leap 15.2 5.3.18-lp152.3.5.1
  • kernel-source-rt openSUSE Leap 15.2 5.3.18-lp152.3.5.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.59.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.59.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.59.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.59.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2021:0242-1openSUSE-SU-2020:1153-1openSUSE-SU-2020:0935-1

  • kernel AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8
  • perf AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8
  • bpftool AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8
  • kernel-core AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8
  • kernel-tools AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8
  • python3-perf AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8
  • kernel-modules AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8
  • kernel-debug-core AlmaLinux 8 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8

almalinux advisories ALSA-2022:1988

  • kernel Rocky Linux 8 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8
  • kernel-rt Rocky Linux 8 4.18.0-372.9.1.rt7.166.el8

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2022:1988RLSA-2022:1975

Is CVE-2020-13974 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

Check with Fencer

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-2020-13974 updated cvss 7.8

kernel: integer overflow in k_ascii() in drivers/tty/vt/keyboard.c

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-alt, python-perf, +9 more
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) perf 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8, kernel 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8, bpftool 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8, kernel-core 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8, kernel-tools 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8, python3-perf 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8, +15 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 8) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 4.18.0-372.9.1.el8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2022:1988
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux NFV (v. 8) kernel-rt 4.18.0-372.9.1.rt7.166.el8, kernel-rt-kvm 4.18.0-372.9.1.rt7.166.el8, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-372.9.1.rt7.166.el8, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-372.9.1.rt7.166.el8, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 4.18.0-372.9.1.rt7.166.el8, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-372.9.1.rt7.166.el8, +4 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux RT (v. 8) kernel-rt 4.18.0-372.9.1.rt7.166.el8, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-372.9.1.rt7.166.el8, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-372.9.1.rt7.166.el8, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-372.9.1.rt7.166.el8, kernel-rt-debug-modules 4.18.0-372.9.1.rt7.166.el8, kernel-rt-modules-extra 4.18.0-372.9.1.rt7.166.el8, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2022:1975
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +82 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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

0.57% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 47% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • lkml.org https://lkml.org/lkml/2020/3/22/482 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.2 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-190 Integer Overflow or Wraparound
Technology feeds

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.