A heap use-after-free vulnerability was found in systemd before version v245-rc1, where asynchronous Polkit queries are performed while handling dbus messages. A local unprivileged attacker can abuse this flaw to crash systemd services or potentially execute code and elevate their privileges, by sending specially crafted dbus messages.
CVE-2020-1712
Score 7.8 from GitHub Security Advisory published 2022-05-24. NVD baseline CVSS 7.8; sources differ by 0.0.
- High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 7.8
- EG Score
- 7.8HIGHmedium confidence
- EG Risk
- 35EG Risk 35/100CISA 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 computedSeverity78% × 45%Exploitation0% × 40%Automatability0% × 15%CISA SSVC: Track at low or medium mission impact; Track* at high (mission-essential systems).Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines. - EPSS PROB
- 0.5%
- EPSS %ILE
- 37th
- KEV
- Not listed
CISA SSVCTrack at low or medium mission impact; Track* at high (mission-essential systems).
A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines.
Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). 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
March 31, 2020
Last Modified
November 21, 2024
Advisory Details (7)
Auto-updated Sep 27, 2026commit 637486261528 (systemd/systemd)
Fix landed in systemd/systemd commit 637486261528 — awaiting tagged release
https://github.com/systemd/systemd/commit/637486261528e8aa3da9f26a4487dc254f4b7abbcommit 1068447e6954 (systemd/systemd)
Fix landed in systemd/systemd commit 1068447e6954 — awaiting tagged release
https://github.com/systemd/systemd/commit/1068447e6954dc6ce52f099ed174c442cb89ed541794578 – (CVE-2020-1712) CVE-2020-1712 systemd: use-after-free when asynchronous polkit queries are performed
Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 as there is no service that performs asynchronous polkit requests in a vulnerable way.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2020-1712oss-security - CVE-2020-1712 systemd: use-after-free when asynchronous polkit queries are performed
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/02/05/1[SECURITY] [DLA 3063-1] systemd security update
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/06/msg00025.htmlcommit ea0d0ede03c6 (systemd/systemd)
Fix landed in systemd/systemd commit ea0d0ede03c6 — awaiting tagged release
https://github.com/systemd/systemd/commit/ea0d0ede03c6f18dbc5036c5e9cccf97e415ccc2commit bc130b685832 (systemd/systemd)
Fix landed in systemd/systemd commit bc130b685832 — awaiting tagged release
https://github.com/systemd/systemd/commit/bc130b6858327b382b07b3985cf48e2aa9016b2dVendor Advisories for CVE-2020-1712(1)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
Patch Availability(3)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fix (by version range) / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | udev-udeb (229-4ubuntu21.27) @ xenial | 2026-05-27 | ubuntu |
| redhat | systemd-0:239-18.el8_1.4 | 2020-02-24 | redhat |
| redhat | systemd-0:239-13.el8_0.7 | 2020-02-20 | 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
(5 across 5 ecosystems)
Debian:11(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| systemd | — |
| — |
Debian:12(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| systemd | — |
| — |
Debian:13(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| systemd | — |
| — |
Debian:14(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| systemd | — |
| — |
Debian:9(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| systemd | 232-25 ... 232-25+deb9u9 (14 versions) |
| — |
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Additional Vendor Advisories
(3)
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 6× in last 7d / 29× 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 172 total refreshes for this CVE.
- 2026-10-05 17:39 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-10-04 23:18 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-10-03 14:22 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-09-30 15:13 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-09-30 14:59 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-09-27 06:45 UTCOSV refresh
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- 2026-09-08 21:56 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-09-07 15:48 UTCOSV refresh
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- 2026-08-21 01:09 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-08-20 22:52 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-08-06 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-05 19:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-05 16:41 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-08-04 15:06 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-23 01:50 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 22:35 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 15:29 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-19 14:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-07-06 02:21 UTCEPSS rescore
Related CVEs(same product + same vendor + same CWE)
Same product
10 shownDebian:9:systemd · Debian:11:systemd
Same vendor
4 shownubuntu:USN-4269-1
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2020-1712?
When was CVE-2020-1712 disclosed?
Is CVE-2020-1712 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-1712?
How do I remediate CVE-2020-1712?
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2020-1712
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