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Fencer Vulns
medium 6.0

CVE-2020-14367 json

A flaw was found in chrony versions before 3.5.1 when creating the PID file under the /var/run/chrony folder.

published 2020-08-24 6 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2020-6508

cvss
6.0
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 42%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A flaw was found in chrony versions before 3.5.1 when creating the PID file under the /var/run/chrony folder. The file is created during chronyd startup while still running as the root user, and when it's opened for writing, chronyd does not check for an existing symbolic link with the same file name. This flaw allows an attacker with privileged access to create a symlink with the default PID file name pointing to any destination file in the system, resulting in data loss and a denial of service due to the path traversal.

Patch / fix

  • tuxfamily chrony 3.5.1
  • chrony Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 3.5.1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-14367

  • chrony Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 3.2-4ubuntu4.5
  • chrony Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 3.5-6ubuntu6.2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2020-14367

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

  • augeas SLE Real Time 15 SP2, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3, SLE Micro 5.2 +3 more 1.10.1-3.9.1
  • chrony SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3, SLE Micro 5.1 4.1-150300.16.3.1
  • chrony SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +10 more 4.1-5.9.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2022:0845-2SUSE-SU-2022:0845-1SUSE-SU-2021:4147-1

  • chrony openSUSE Tumbleweed 4.1-5.2
  • chrony openSUSE Leap 15.3 4.1-150300.16.3.1
  • augeas openSUSE Leap 15.3 1.10.1-3.9.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10682-1openSUSE-SU-2022:0845-1

  • chrony Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +12 more 3.5.1-r0
  • chrony Alpine 3.9 3.4-r2

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2020-14367

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

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-2020-14367 updated cvss 5.1

chrony: Insecure writing to PID file

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 chrony
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 chrony
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 chrony
    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

0.49% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 42% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 6.0 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 3.6 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P

Affected products

  • n/a Chrony

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-59 Improper Link Resolution Before File Access

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.