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Fencer Intel
medium 5.9

CVE-2020-28097 json

The vgacon subsystem in the Linux kernel before 5.8.10 mishandles software scrollback.

published 5y ago modified last mo. also EUVD-2020-20584

cvss
5.9
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 44%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The vgacon subsystem in the Linux kernel before 5.8.10 mishandles software scrollback. There is a vgacon_scrolldelta out-of-bounds read, aka CID-973c096f6a85.

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 5.8.10
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.8.10-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-28097

  • linux Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-197.229
  • linux Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-126.129
  • linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-56.62
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-1118.132
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1088.93
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1030.31
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.15.0-1088.101~16.04.1
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1030.32

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2020-28097

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-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.78.1
  • kernel-syms-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.78.1
  • kernel-rt_debug SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.78.1
  • kernel-source-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.78.1
  • kernel-rt SLE Micro 5.1, Real Time Module 15 SP3 5.3.18-150300.76.1
  • kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP3 5.3.18-150300.76.1
  • kernel-rt_debug Real Time Module 15 SP3 5.3.18-150300.76.1
  • kernel-source-rt Real Time Module 15 SP3 5.3.18-150300.76.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2022:0555-1SUSE-SU-2022:0543-1SUSE-SU-2022:0372-1SUSE-SU-2022:0370-1SUSE-SU-2022:0364-1SUSE-SU-2022:0363-1

  • dtb-aarch64 openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-150300.59.49.1
  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-150300.59.49.1
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-150300.59.49.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-150300.59.49.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-150300.59.49.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-150300.59.49.1
  • kernel-preempt openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-150300.59.49.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-150300.59.49.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2022:0370-1openSUSE-SU-2022:0363-1

Is CVE-2020-28097 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-2020-28097 updated cvss 5.9

kernel: out-of-bounds read/write in vgacon_scrolldelta function

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-alt, python-perf, +9 more
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more
    affected: workaround, no fix available
  • Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 kernel
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +81 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

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
last mo.

Exploit prediction

0.52% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 44% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • seclists.org https://seclists.org/oss-sec/2020/q3/176 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.9 CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 3.6 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness
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.