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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2020-12768 json

An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel before 5.6.

published 2020-05-09 6 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2020-5053

cvss
5.5
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 33%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel before 5.6. svm_cpu_uninit in arch/x86/kvm/svm.c has a memory leak, aka CID-d80b64ff297e. NOTE: third parties dispute this issue because it's a one-time leak at the boot, the size is negligible, and it can't be triggered at will

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 5.6
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.6.7-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-12768

  • linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-40.44
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1018.18
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1019.19
  • linux-hwe Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 5.3.0-62.56~18.04.1
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1018.18
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1020.20
  • linux-raspi Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1013.13
  • linux-riscv Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-28.32

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2020-12768

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-syms SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP4 4.12.14-95.54.1
  • kernel-source SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP4 4.12.14-95.54.1
  • kernel-default SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP4, SLE Workstation Extension 12 SP4 +2 more 4.12.14-95.54.1
  • kernel-obs-build SLE Software Development Kit 12 SP4 4.12.14-95.54.1
  • kernel-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP1 4.12.14-8.33.1
  • kernel-syms-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP1 4.12.14-8.33.1
  • kernel-source-azure SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP1 4.12.14-8.33.1
  • kernel-azure SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP4 4.12.14-6.43.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2020:1605-1SUSE-SU-2020:1604-1SUSE-SU-2020:1603-1SUSE-SU-2020:1602-1SUSE-SU-2020:1599-1SUSE-SU-2020:1587-1

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-2020-12768 updated cvss 1.9

kernel: memory leak in svm_cpu_init function in arch/x86/kvm/svm.c

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 kernel Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-alt, python-perf, +9 more Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2 kernel-rt, mrg-rt-release, kernel-rt-trace, kernel-rt-vanilla, kernel-rt-firmware
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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

0.39% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 33% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 2.1 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-401 Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
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.