CVE-2020-36242

CRITICALNVD 9.19.1—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

This critical-severity CVE scores 9.1 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 6.7%, top 7% 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
9.1EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 7%CVSS: 9.1Exploit: None knownExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

In the cryptography package before 3.3.2 for Python, certain sequences of update calls to symmetrically encrypt multi-GB values could result in an integer overflow and buffer overflow, as demonstrated by the Fernet class.

CVSS v3
9.1
EG Score
9.1(medium)
EG Risk
48(Track)
EG Risk 48/100SSVC: Track

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
Severity91% × 45%
Exploitation7% × 40%
Automatability30% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS PROB
7%
EPSS %ILE
93%
KEV
Not listed

Published

February 7, 2021

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

Advisory Details (4)

Auto-updated Jul 22, 2026
No patch confirmed yet.
generic

[SECURITY] Fedora 33 Update: python-cryptography-3.2.1-2.fc33 - package-announce - Fedora mailing-lists

https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/L7RGQLK4J5ZQFRLKCHVVG6BKZTUQMG7E/
generic

Fernet fails to encrypt/decrypt large data · Issue #5615 · pyca/cryptography · GitHub

https://github.com/pyca/cryptography/issues/5615
generic

Comparing 3.3.1...3.3.2 · pyca/cryptography · GitHub

https://github.com/pyca/cryptography/compare/3.3.1...3.3.2
generic

cryptography/CHANGELOG.rst at main · pyca/cryptography · GitHub

https://github.com/pyca/cryptography/blob/master/CHANGELOG.rst

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2020-36242(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 / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
redhatrh-python38-python-urllib3-0:1.25.7-7.el72021-08-24redhat
redhatredhat-virtualization-host-0:4.4.6-20210527.3.el8_42021-06-03redhat
redhatpython-cryptography-0:3.2.1-4.el82021-05-18redhat

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

(8 across 8 ecosystems)
Alpine:v3.13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
py3-cryptography—3.3.2-r0—
Alpine:v3.23(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
py3-cryptography—3.2.2-r0—
Alpine:v3.24(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
py3-cryptography—3.2.2-r0—
Debian:11(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
python-cryptography—3.3.2-1—
Debian:12(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
python-cryptography—3.3.2-1—
Debian:13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
python-cryptography—3.3.2-1—
Debian:14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
python-cryptography—3.3.2-1—
PyPI(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
cryptography3.1 ... 3.3.1 (6 versions)3.3.2—

Weakness Classification(2)

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 5× in last 7d / 22× 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 116 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-08-25 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-08-21 23:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-08-20 22:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-08-20 08:31 UTCOSV refresh
  5. 2026-08-19 17:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-08-18 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-08-16 14:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-08-16 02:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-08-15 01:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-08-13 21:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-08-12 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-08-08 16:33 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-08-07 16:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-08-06 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-08-05 04:10 UTCOSV refresh
  16. 2026-08-04 15:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-08-04 10:34 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-08-02 02:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-08-01 04:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-07-30 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-07-30 01:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-07-28 15:33 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-07-26 14:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-07-25 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-07-24 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
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  1. 2026-07-23 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-23 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-07-23 01:53 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-07-22 22:39 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-07-22 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-07-19 14:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-07-19 14:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-07-19 02:22 UTCOSV refresh
  15. 2026-07-16 16:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-07-15 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-07-13 22:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-07-13 22:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-07-12 05:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-07-09 19:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-07-08 15:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-07-07 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-07-06 02:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-07-06 02:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  33. 2026-07-01 09:18 UTCOSV refresh
  34. 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  35. 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  36. 2026-06-29 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  37. 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  38. 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  39. 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
  42. 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  43. 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  44. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  47. 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  48. 2026-06-21 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  49. 2026-06-21 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  50. 2026-06-19 19:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  51. 2026-06-19 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  52. 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  53. 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  54. 2026-06-17 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  55. 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  56. 2026-06-15 17:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  57. 2026-06-14 23:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  58. 2026-06-13 22:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  59. 2026-06-13 14:43 UTCOSV refresh
  60. 2026-06-12 23:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  61. 2026-06-11 13:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  62. 2026-06-10 22:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  63. 2026-06-10 13:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  64. 2026-06-08 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  65. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  66. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  67. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  68. 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  69. 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  70. 2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore
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  72. 2026-06-04 13:10 UTCEPSS rescore
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  74. 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  75. 2026-06-02 20:11 UTCEPSS rescore

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2020-36242?
CVE-2020-36242 is a critical vulnerability published on February 7, 2021. In the cryptography package before 3.3.2 for Python, certain sequences of update calls to symmetrically encrypt multi-GB values could result in an integer overflow and buffer overflow, as demonstrated by the Fernet class.
When was CVE-2020-36242 disclosed?
CVE-2020-36242 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on February 7, 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-2020-36242 actively exploited?
CVE-2020-36242 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 7% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 6.6% of all scored CVEs.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-36242?
CVE-2020-36242 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.1 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2020-36242?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2020-36242, 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

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