CVE-2020-5253 json
Privilege escalation in NetHack
published 6y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2020-26463
- cvss
- 3.9
- version 3.1, CNA
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 0.5%
- EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 45%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
NetHack before version 3.6.0 allowed malicious use of escaping of characters in the configuration file (usually .nethackrc) which could be exploited. This bug is patched in NetHack 3.6.0.
Patch / fix
- nethack nethack 3.6.0
- nethack Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 3.6.0-1
debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-5253
- nethack openSUSE Tumbleweed 3.4.3-6.1
opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2025:14898-1
Is CVE-2020-5253 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 FencerExploit prediction
0.54% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 45% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).
CVSS scores
| assigned by | version | score | vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | 3.1 | 3.9 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N |
| 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 | 7.5 | AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P |
Affected products
- NetHack NetHack
Classification
References
-
github.com
/NetHack/NetHack/commits/612755bfb5c412079795c68ba392df5d93874ed8
patch, third-party-advisory
-
github.com
/NetHack/NetHack/security/advisories/GHSA-2c7p-3fj4-223m
third-party-advisory
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2020-5253
- NVD CVE-2020-5253
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.