Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2020-25641

A flaw was found in the Linux kernel's implementation of biovecs in versions before 5.9-rc7. A zero-length biovec request issued by the block subsystem could cause the kernel to enter an infinite loop, causing a denial of service. This flaw allows a local attacker with basic privileges to issue requests to a block device, resulting in a denial of service. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to system availability.

Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a MEDIUM severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.5, requiring local system access to exploit with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 5 products from linux, from redhat, from opensuse and 2 others, organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2020, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.

Published

2020-10-06T14:15:12.603

Last Modified

2024-11-21T05:18:18.953

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 5.5 (MEDIUM)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

Access Vector: LOCAL
Access Complexity: LOW
Authentication: NONE
Confidentiality Impact: NONE
Integrity Impact: NONE
Availability Impact: COMPLETE

Exploitability Score

3.9

Impact Score

6.9

Weaknesses

Type: Secondary
CWE-835
Type: Primary
CWE-835

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Operating System	linux	linux_kernel	≤ 5.8.13	Yes
Operating System	linux	linux_kernel	5.9.0	Yes
Operating System	linux	linux_kernel	5.9.0	Yes
Operating System	linux	linux_kernel	5.9.0	Yes
Operating System	linux	linux_kernel	5.9.0	Yes
Operating System	linux	linux_kernel	5.9.0	Yes
Operating System	linux	linux_kernel	5.9.0	Yes
Operating System	linux	linux_kernel	5.9.0	Yes
Operating System	redhat	enterprise_linux	7.0	Yes
Operating System	redhat	enterprise_linux	8.0	Yes
Operating System	opensuse	leap	15.1	Yes
Operating System	opensuse	leap	15.2	Yes
Operating System	debian	debian_linux	9.0	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	18.04	Yes
Operating System	canonical	ubuntu_linux	20.04	Yes

References

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-10/msg00021.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-10/msg00042.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/10/06/9 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1881424 Issue Tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=7e24969022cbd61ddc586f14824fc205661bb124 Mailing List, Patch, Vendor Advisory ([email protected])
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/10/msg00032.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/10/msg00034.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4576-1/ Third Party Advisory ([email protected])
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/block/biovecs.html Vendor Advisory ([email protected])
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-10/msg00021.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-10/msg00042.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/10/06/9 Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1881424 Issue Tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=7e24969022cbd61ddc586f14824fc205661bb124 Mailing List, Patch, Vendor Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/10/msg00032.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/10/msg00034.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4576-1/ Third Party Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/block/biovecs.html Vendor Advisory (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For linux's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.