CVE-2019-20477

CRITICALNVD 9.89.8
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

This critical-severity CVE scores 9.8 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 0.4%, top 38% of all CVEs by exploit prediction. GitHub Security Advisory data not yet ingested — confidence will rise once GHSA publishes (typical lag: hours to days for open-source ecosystem CVEs; never for infrastructure-only CVEs).

Triggered by: NVD CVSS baseline
Sources: epss, nvd
9.8
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS: 5%CVSS: 9.8Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

PyYAML 5.1 through 5.1.2 has insufficient restrictions on the load and load_all functions because of a class deserialization issue, e.g., Popen is a class in the subprocess module. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2017-18342.

CVSS v3
9.8
EG Score
9.8(medium)
EPSS
91.4%
KEV
Not listed

Published

February 19, 2020

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

Advisory Details (3)

Auto-updated Jun 8, 2026
No patch confirmed yet.
generic

[SECURITY] Fedora 31 Update: PyYAML-5.3-2.fc31 - package-announce - Fedora mailing-lists

https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/52N5XS73Z5S4ZN7I7R56ICCPCTKCUV4H/
generic

[SECURITY] Fedora 30 Update: PyYAML-5.3-2.fc30 - package-announce - Fedora mailing-lists

https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/33VBUY73AA6CTTYL3LRWHNFDULV7PFPN/
generic

pyyaml/CHANGES at main · yaml/pyyaml · GitHub

https://github.com/yaml/pyyaml/blob/master/CHANGES

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2019-20477(1)

These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.

Patch Availability(2)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
redhatquay/quay-rhel8:v3.4.0-512021-02-04redhat
redhatpython38:3.8-8030020200818121840.4190259b2020-11-04redhat

Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.

Affected Packages

(1 across 1 ecosystem)
PyPI(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
pyyaml5.1, 5.1.1, 5.1.25.2b1

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Additional Vendor Advisories

(1)

Vendors that published advisories for this CVE beyond the curated set above. Broader coverage but minimal per-row detail — click through for the original advisory.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 9× in last 7d / 40× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

  1. 2026-07-11 08:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-11 08:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-07-09 19:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-08 15:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-07-07 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-07-06 02:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-07-05 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-07-04 06:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-07-02 09:17 UTCOSV refresh
  12. 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-06-29 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-06-28 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 47 more
  1. 2026-06-21 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-06-21 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-06-19 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-06-19 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-06-17 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-06-15 17:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-06-14 23:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-06-14 23:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-06-14 08:43 UTCOSV refresh
  14. 2026-06-13 22:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-06-12 23:09 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-06-11 13:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-06-10 22:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-06-10 13:19 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-08 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-06-04 13:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-06-04 13:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-06-01 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  33. 2026-06-01 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  34. 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  35. 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  36. 2026-05-31 00:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  37. 2026-05-31 00:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  38. 2026-05-29 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  39. 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-05-27 13:38 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-05-27 07:29 UTCEG score recompute
  42. 2026-05-27 07:29 UTCVendor advisory
  43. 2026-05-26 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  44. 2026-05-26 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  47. 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2019-20477?
CVE-2019-20477 is a critical vulnerability published on February 19, 2020. PyYAML 5.1 through 5.1.2 has insufficient restrictions on the load and load_all functions because of a class deserialization issue, e.g., Popen is a class in the subprocess module. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2017-18342.
When was CVE-2019-20477 disclosed?
CVE-2019-20477 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on February 19, 2020, with the most recent update on November 21, 2024. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2019-20477 actively exploited?
CVE-2019-20477 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 91.4% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2019-20477?
CVE-2019-20477 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2019-20477?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2019-20477, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2019-20477

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