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Fencer Vulns
medium 4.7

CVE-2020-12114 json

A pivot_root race condition in fs/namespace.c in the Linux kernel 4.4.x before 4.4.221, 4.9.x before 4.9.221, 4.14.x before 4.14.178, 4.19.…

published 2020-05-04 6 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2020-4430

cvss
4.7
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 38%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A pivot_root race condition in fs/namespace.c in the Linux kernel 4.4.x before 4.4.221, 4.9.x before 4.9.221, 4.14.x before 4.14.178, 4.19.x before 4.19.119, and 5.x before 5.3 allows local users to cause a denial of service (panic) by corrupting a mountpoint reference counter.

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 4.4.221, 4.9.221, 4.14.178, 4.19.119, 5.3
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.3.7-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-12114

  • linux Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-184.214
  • linux Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-106.107
  • linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-37.41
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.4.0-1109.120
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 4.15.0-1073.77
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1015.15
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 4.15.0-1077.87~16.04.1
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1015.15

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2020-12114

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • kernel RHEL 8 4.18.0-305.el8
  • perf RHEL 8 4.18.0-305.el8
  • bpftool RHEL 8 4.18.0-305.el8
  • kernel-core RHEL 8 4.18.0-305.el8
  • kernel-tools RHEL 8 4.18.0-305.el8
  • python3-perf RHEL 8 4.18.0-305.el8
  • kernel-modules RHEL 8 4.18.0-305.el8
  • kernel-zfcpdump RHEL 8 4.18.0-305.el8

red hat advisories RHSA-2021:1578RHSA-2021:1739RHSA-2021:2185RHSA-2021:2190

  • kernel-rt Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.28.1
  • kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.28.1
  • kernel-rt_debug Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.28.1
  • kernel-source-rt Real Time Module 15 SP1 4.12.14-14.28.1
  • kernel-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.13.1
  • kernel-syms-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.13.1
  • kernel-rt_debug SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.13.1
  • kernel-source-rt SLE Real Time 12 SP5 4.12.14-10.13.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2020:2487-1SUSE-SU-2020:2478-1SUSE-SU-2020:2156-1SUSE-SU-2020:1663-1SUSE-SU-2020:1605-1SUSE-SU-2020:1604-1

  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.52.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.52.3
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.52.1
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.52.1
  • kernel-vanilla openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.52.1
  • kernel-kvmsmall openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.52.1
  • kernel-obs-build openSUSE Leap 15.1 4.12.14-lp151.28.52.3

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2020:0801-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2020-12114 updated cvss 4.4

kernel: DoS by corrupting mountpoint reference counter

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-alt, python-perf, +9 more
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 kernel
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 4.18.0-305.el8, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 4.18.0-305.el8, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 4.18.0-305.el8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:1578
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder EUS (v. 8.2) kernel-debuginfo-common-x86_64 4.18.0-193.56.1.el8_2, kernel-debuginfo-common-aarch64 4.18.0-193.56.1.el8_2, kernel-debuginfo-common-ppc64le 4.18.0-193.56.1.el8_2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:2185
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) perf 4.18.0-305.el8, kernel 4.18.0-305.el8, bpftool 4.18.0-305.el8, kernel-core 4.18.0-305.el8, kernel-tools 4.18.0-305.el8, python3-perf 4.18.0-305.el8, +15 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:1578
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS EUS (v. 8.2) perf 4.18.0-193.56.1.el8_2, kernel 4.18.0-193.56.1.el8_2, bpftool 4.18.0-193.56.1.el8_2, kernel-core 4.18.0-193.56.1.el8_2, kernel-tools 4.18.0-193.56.1.el8_2, python3-perf 4.18.0-193.56.1.el8_2, +15 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:2185
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time (v. 8) kernel-rt 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-debug-modules 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-modules-extra 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:1739
show 3 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time EUS (v. 8.2) kernel-rt 4.18.0-193.56.1.rt13.106.el8_2, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-193.56.1.rt13.106.el8_2, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-193.56.1.rt13.106.el8_2, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-193.56.1.rt13.106.el8_2, kernel-rt-debug-modules 4.18.0-193.56.1.rt13.106.el8_2, kernel-rt-modules-extra 4.18.0-193.56.1.rt13.106.el8_2, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:2190
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time for NFV (v. 8) kernel-rt 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-kvm 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-305.rt7.72.el8, +4 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:1739
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Real Time for NFV EUS (v. 8.2) kernel-rt 4.18.0-193.56.1.rt13.106.el8_2, kernel-rt-kvm 4.18.0-193.56.1.rt13.106.el8_2, kernel-rt-core 4.18.0-193.56.1.rt13.106.el8_2, kernel-rt-modules 4.18.0-193.56.1.rt13.106.el8_2, kernel-rt-debug-kvm 4.18.0-193.56.1.rt13.106.el8_2, kernel-rt-debug-core 4.18.0-193.56.1.rt13.106.el8_2, +4 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2021:2190

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.44% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 38% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 4.7 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 1.9 AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-362 Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.