CVE-2020-16120

MEDIUMNVD 5.15.1—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

This medium-severity CVE scores 5.1 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 0.4% (33rd percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs). 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
5.1EG
EchelonGraph verdictMonitorLow exploitation likelihood right now — keep watching.
  • Lower severity and no public exploit yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0.4%CVSS: 5.1Exploit: None knownExposed services: Not assessed

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
5.1MEDIUMmedium confidence
EG Risk
28
EG Risk 28/100CISA SSVC

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity51% × 45%
Exploitation0% × 40%
Automatability30% × 15%
CISA SSVC: Track at low or medium mission impact; Track or Attend at high (mission-essential systems).
Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high.
EPSS PROB
0.4%
EPSS %ILE
33rd
KEV
Not listed

CISA SSVCTrack at low or medium mission impact; Track or Attend at high (mission-essential systems).

A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high.

Exploitation none (no KEV listing, exploit record or EPSS ≥ 50%) · Automatable unknown (not published for this CVE) · Technical impact partial (CVSS below 9.0). Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it: high means the affected system is essential to your organisation's mission, or its compromise could cause irreversible harm to people. CISA's decision table

Published

February 10, 2021

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

References (22)

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2020-16120(1)

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

Patch Availability(4)

Vendor / EcosystemFix (by version range) / 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.

Affected Packages

(4 across 4 ecosystems)
Debian:11(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
linux—
  • every version up to 5.8.7-1: fixed in 5.8.7-1
—
Debian:12(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
linux—
  • every version up to 5.8.7-1: fixed in 5.8.7-1
—
Debian:13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
linux—
  • every version up to 5.8.7-1: fixed in 5.8.7-1
—
Debian:14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
linux—
  • every version up to 5.8.7-1: fixed in 5.8.7-1
—

Weakness Classification(2)

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

Additional Vendor Advisories

(4)

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 7× in last 7d / 30× 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.

Showing the most recent 100 of 176 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-10-10 19:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-10-09 20:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-10-08 16:38 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-10-07 23:44 UTCEPSS rescore
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  10. 2026-09-30 15:13 UTCEG score recompute
  11. 2026-09-30 14:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-09-27 13:40 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-09-26 15:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-09-26 10:25 UTCOSV refresh
  15. 2026-09-26 00:20 UTCEPSS rescore
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  1. 2026-09-15 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
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  7. 2026-09-08 21:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-09-07 15:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-09-06 22:31 UTCOSV refresh
  10. 2026-09-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
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  21. 2026-08-21 23:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-08-20 22:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-08-20 08:31 UTCOSV refresh
  24. 2026-08-19 17:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-08-18 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-08-17 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-08-16 14:52 UTCEPSS rescore
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  35. 2026-08-06 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  36. 2026-08-05 19:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  37. 2026-08-05 03:41 UTCOSV refresh
  38. 2026-08-04 15:06 UTCEPSS rescore
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  40. 2026-08-02 02:23 UTCEPSS rescore
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  42. 2026-07-30 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
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  44. 2026-07-28 15:32 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-07-27 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-07-26 14:51 UTCEPSS rescore
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  49. 2026-07-24 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  50. 2026-07-23 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  51. 2026-07-23 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  52. 2026-07-23 01:50 UTCEG score recompute
  53. 2026-07-22 22:35 UTCEG score recompute
  54. 2026-07-22 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  55. 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
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  57. 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
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  59. 2026-07-19 14:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  60. 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
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  62. 2026-07-19 01:59 UTCOSV refresh
  63. 2026-07-18 10:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  64. 2026-07-16 16:59 UTCEPSS rescore
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  74. 2026-07-09 19:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  75. 2026-07-08 15:12 UTCEPSS rescore

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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 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 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (33rd percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
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?
A fix for CVE-2020-16120 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory. The vendor advisories EchelonGraph has for CVE-2020-16120 are linked in the Vendor Advisories panel on this page.

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