CVE-2020-16120

MEDIUMNVD 5.15.1—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

This medium-severity CVE scores 5.1 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 0.1%, top 80% 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
5.1
EchelonGraph verdictMonitorLow exploitation likelihood right now — keep watching.
  • Lower severity and no public exploit yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS: 0%CVSS: 5.1Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

Overlayfs did not properly perform permission checking when copying up files in an overlayfs and could be exploited from within a user namespace, if, for example, unprivileged user namespaces were allowed. It was possible to have a file not readable by an unprivileged user to be copied to a mountpoint controlled by the user, like a removable device. This was introduced in kernel version 4.19 by commit d1d04ef ("ovl: stack file ops"). This was fixed in kernel version 5.8 by commits 56230d9 ("ovl: verify permissions in ovl_path_open()"), 48bd024 ("ovl: switch to mounter creds in readdir") and 05acefb ("ovl: check permission to open real file"). Additionally, commits 130fdbc ("ovl: pass correct flags for opening real directory") and 292f902 ("ovl: call secutiry hook in ovl_real_ioctl()") in kernel 5.8 might also be desired or necessary. These additional commits introduced a regression in overlay mounts within user namespaces which prevented access to files with ownership outside of the user namespace. This regression was mitigated by subsequent commit b6650da ("ovl: do not fail because of O_NOATIMEi") in kernel 5.11.

CVSS v3
5.1
EG Score
5.1(medium)
EPSS
31.7%
KEV
Not listed

Published

February 10, 2021

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

References (22)

Patch Availability(4)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
ubuntulinux-image-virtual-hwe-16.04-edge (4.15.0.120.121) @ xenial2026-05-26ubuntu
ubuntulinux-image-raspi2-hwe-18.04 (5.3.0.1035.24) @ bionic2026-05-26ubuntu
ubuntulowlatency-4.4 (4.4.0-168) @ xenial2026-05-26ubuntu
ubuntulinux-image-virtual-hwe-20.04 (5.4.0.51.54) @ focal2026-05-26ubuntu

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.

Weakness Classification(2)

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

All Vendor Advisories

(5)

Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 11× in last 7d / 44× 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 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-07-09 19:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-08 15:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-07-07 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-07-07 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-07-06 02:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-07-06 02:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-07-05 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-07-04 06:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-07-01 08:48 UTCOSV refresh
  16. 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-06-29 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-28 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 55 more
  1. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-06-21 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-06-21 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-06-19 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-06-17 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-06-15 17:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-06-14 23:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-06-13 22:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-06-13 22:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-06-13 14:13 UTCOSV refresh
  19. 2026-06-12 23:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-11 13:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-10 22:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-10 22:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-06-10 13:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-08 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-06-08 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  33. 2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  34. 2026-06-04 13:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  35. 2026-06-04 13:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  36. 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  37. 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  38. 2026-06-01 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  39. 2026-06-01 13:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-05-31 22:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  42. 2026-05-31 00:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  43. 2026-05-31 00:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  44. 2026-05-29 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-05-28 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  47. 2026-05-27 13:39 UTCEPSS rescore
  48. 2026-05-26 20:57 UTCEG score recompute
  49. 2026-05-26 20:57 UTCVendor advisory
  50. 2026-05-26 20:57 UTCGHSA enrichment
  51. 2026-05-26 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  52. 2026-05-26 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  53. 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  54. 2026-05-26 07:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  55. 2026-05-24 16:48 UTCEPSS rescore

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2020-16120?
CVE-2020-16120 is a medium vulnerability published on February 10, 2021. Overlayfs did not properly perform permission checking when copying up files in an overlayfs and could be exploited from within a user namespace, if, for example, unprivileged user namespaces were allowed. It was possible to have a file not readable by an unprivileged user to be copied to a…
When was CVE-2020-16120 disclosed?
CVE-2020-16120 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on February 10, 2021, 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-2020-16120 actively exploited?
CVE-2020-16120 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 31.7% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-16120?
CVE-2020-16120 has a CVSS v3 base score of 5.1 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2020-16120?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2020-16120, 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.

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