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.
CVE-2019-20477
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).
- High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
A fix is available — apply it.
- 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[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/[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/pyyaml/CHANGES at main · yaml/pyyaml · GitHub
https://github.com/yaml/pyyaml/blob/master/CHANGESVendor 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 / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| redhat | quay/quay-rhel8:v3.4.0-51 | 2021-02-04 | redhat |
| redhat | python38:3.8-8030020200818121840.4190259b | 2020-11-04 | redhat |
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)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| pyyaml | 5.1, 5.1.1, 5.1.2 | 5.2b1 | — |
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.
- 2026-07-11 08:24 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-02 09:17 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-06-21 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-06-14 08:43 UTCOSV refresh
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- 2026-05-29 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-27 13:38 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-27 07:29 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-05-27 07:29 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-05-26 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-26 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore
Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)
Same vendor
10 shownredhat
Same CWE
10 shownCWE-502
- CVE-2017-20208EG 9.8CRITICAL
- CVE-2017-20207EG 9.8CRITICAL
- CVE-2017-20206EG 9.8CRITICAL
- CVE-2017-20189EG 9.8CRITICAL
- CVE-2017-10992EG 9.8EPSS 95%CRITICAL
- CVE-2013-4521EG 9.8EPSS 90%CRITICAL
- CVE-2014-1860EG 9.8CRITICAL
- CVE-2016-1000027EG 9.8EPSS 98%CRITICAL
- CVE-2014-3699EG 9.8CRITICAL
- CVE-2017-18605EG 9.8CRITICAL
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2019-20477?
When was CVE-2019-20477 disclosed?
Is CVE-2019-20477 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2019-20477?
How do I remediate CVE-2019-20477?
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2019-20477
Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2019-20477?
EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.