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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2020-36311 json

An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel before 5.9.

published 2021-04-06 5 y ago modified 2026-10-08 31 d ago also EUVD-2020-23853

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.3%
EPSS 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 27%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

An issue was discovered in the Linux kernel before 5.9. arch/x86/kvm/svm/sev.c allows attackers to cause a denial of service (soft lockup) by triggering destruction of a large SEV VM (which requires unregistering many encrypted regions), aka CID-7be74942f184.

Patch / fix

  • linux linux_kernel 5.9.0
  • linux Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 5.9.1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2020-36311

  • linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-84.94
  • linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1056.59
  • linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1052.56
  • linux-gke Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1052.55
  • linux-kvm Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1046.48
  • linux-azure Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1058.60
  • linux-gkeop Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1023.24
  • linux-oracle Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1054.58

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2020-36311

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-64kb SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-syms SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP3 5.3.18-59.5.1
  • kernel-source SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP3, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-default SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP3, SLE Module for Legacy 15 SP3, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3 +2 more 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-preempt SLE Workstation Extension 15 SP3, SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP3, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-zfcpdump SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-obs-build SLE Module for Development Tools 15 SP3 5.3.18-59.5.1
  • kernel-default-base SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP3 5.3.18-59.5.2.18.2.2

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2021:1977-1SUSE-SU-2021:1975-1SUSE-SU-2021:1625-1SUSE-SU-2021:1624-1SUSE-SU-2021:1596-1SUSE-SU-2021:1573-1

  • kernel-64kb openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-syms openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-59.5.1
  • kernel-obs-qa openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-59.5.1
  • kernel-source openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-default openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-preempt openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-kvmsmall openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-59.5.2
  • kernel-zfcpdump openSUSE Leap 15.3 5.3.18-59.5.2

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2021:1977-1openSUSE-SU-2021:1975-1openSUSE-SU-2021:0758-1openSUSE-SU-2021:0579-1

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-2020-36311 updated cvss 2.8

kernel: DoS by triggering destruction of a large SEV VM

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more
    affected: no fix available
  • 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 Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +81 more
    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

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
31 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.34% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 27% 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

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.