CVE-2020-12656 is a memory leak vulnerability in the Linux kernel's rpcsec_gss_krb5 implementation, specifically affecting versions through 5.6.10, including various Canonical, Linux, and openSUSE distributions. This flaw, rated Medium (CVSS 5.5), stems from missing domain_release calls, leading to memory exhaustion (Availability impact). While loading kernel modules is a privileged operation, allowing a privileged attacker to cause a denial of service, there is no evidence of active exploitation, public exploit code, or significant community discussion surrounding this vulnerability.
| Vendor | Product | Version(s) | CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
<= 5.6.10CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | ||
14.04CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:* | ||
16.04CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:* | ||
18.04CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:* | ||
20.04CPE matchmatch criteria | cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:* |
CVSS version used by this source: 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
No social media mentions found for this CVE.
The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.0 Reddit, 0.0 Bluesky, 0.0 Mastodon, and 0.1 GitHub mentions.
No media coverage found for this CVE.
The average CVE in this peer group has 0.1 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.
CVE-2020-12656
Aug 11, 2020gss_mech_free in net/sunrpc/auth_gss/gss_mech_switch.c in the rpcsec_gss_krb5 implementation in the Linux kernel through 5.6.10 lacks certain domain_release calls leading to a memory leak. Note: This was disputed with the assertion that the issue does not grant any access not already available. It is a problem that on unloading a specific kernel module some memory is leaked but loading kernel modules is a privileged operation. A user could also write a kernel module to consume any amount of memory they like and load that replicating the effect of this bug
May 12, 2020kernel: gss_mech_free in net/sunrpc/auth_gss/gss_mech_switch.c in the rpcsec_gss_krb5 implementation lacks certain domain_release calls, leading to a memory leak.
May 5, 2020