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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2020-16589 json

A head-based buffer overflow exists in Academy Software Foundation OpenEXR 2.3.0 in writeTileData in ImfTiledOutputFile.cpp that can cause…

published 2020-12-09 5 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2020-8550

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.1%
EPSS 1.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 67%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A head-based buffer overflow exists in Academy Software Foundation OpenEXR 2.3.0 in writeTileData in ImfTiledOutputFile.cpp that can cause a denial of service via a crafted EXR file.

Patch / fix

  • openexr Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.5.3-2

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-16589

  • openexr Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 2.2.0-10ubuntu2.4
  • openexr Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 2.2.0-11.1ubuntu1.4
  • openexr Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 2.3.0-6ubuntu0.3

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2020-16589

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

  • openexr SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP2, SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP1 2.2.1-3.21.1
  • openexr SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5, SLE Workstation Extension 12 SP5 +1 more 2.1.0-6.26.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2020:3934-1SUSE-SU-2020:3931-1

  • openexr openSUSE Leap 15.2 2.2.1-lp152.7.8.1
  • openexr openSUSE Leap 15.1 2.2.1-lp151.4.15.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2020:2351-1openSUSE-SU-2020:2349-1

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-2020-16589 updated cvss 5.5

OpenEXR: A heap-based buffer overflow in writeTileData in ImfTiledOutputFile.cpp could result in a DOS via a crafted EXR file

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 OpenEXR, OpenEXR-libs Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 OpenEXR, OpenEXR-libs
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 OpenEXR, OpenEXR-libs
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”

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

1.15% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 67% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/openexr/commit/6bb36714528a9563dd3b92720c5063a1284b86f8 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 2.0 4.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness

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.