FedoraOperating system · Fedoraproject

CVE-2020-12803

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-06-08
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.4.4 or later.
See remediation →
72/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
ODF documents can contain forms to be filled out by the user. Similar to HTML forms, the contained form data can be submitted to a URI, for example, to an external web server. To create submittable forms, ODF implements the XForms W3C standard, which allows data to be submitted without the need for macros or other active scripting Prior to version 6.4.4 LibreOffice allowed forms to be submitted to any URI, including file: URIs, enabling form submissions to overwrite local files. User-interaction is required to submit the form, but to avoid the possibility of malicious documents engineered to maximize the possibility of inadvertent user submission this feature has now been limited to http[s] URIs, removing the possibility to overwrite local files. This issue affects: The Document Foundation LibreOffice versions prior to 6.4.4.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

LibreOffice versions prior to 6.4.4 allowed ODF documents containing XForms to submit form data to arbitrary URIs, including file: URIs. This enabled malicious documents to overwrite local files on the user's system when the user was tricked into submitting a form. The fix restricts form submissions to http[s] URIs only.

MitigationUpgrade to LibreOffice 6.4.4 or later, which limits form submissions to http[s] URIs and prevents file: URI submissions that could overwrite local files.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 31
LibreofficeApplication
Affected:< 6.4.4
LeapOperating system
Affected:= 15.1

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Determine installed LibreOffice version
    Run ' libreoffice --version ' or check the package manager (e.g., ' rpm -q libreoffice ' on Fedora/RHEL, ' dpkg -l libreoffice ' on Debian)
    Affected if The version displayed is earlier than 6.4.4 (for example, 6.4.3, 6.4.2, 6.3.x, 6.2.x, etc.)
  2. Confirm the specific LibreOffice build
    In LibreOffice, go to Help > About LibreOffice to see the full version string including the minor release number
    Affected if The build is any version prior to 6.4.4 (such as 6.4.3 or earlier)
  3. Identify if XForms documents are used
    Search for .odt, .ods, or .odp files that contain XForms by inspecting document structure (unzip the ODF file and look for forms/xforms.xml or similar XForms elements)
    Affected if You regularly open or process ODF documents containing XForms definitions with form submission actions
  4. Check document submission configurations
    Review any ODF templates or documents that define form submissions - look for 'submission' elements in XForms within the document structure
    Affected if Documents contain form submissions that could target arbitrary URIs including file: schemes

You are affected if you have LibreOffice version earlier than 6.4.4 AND process ODF documents containing XForms with form submission capabilities.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 6.4.4 or later
Fixed in 6.4.4
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to LibreOffice 6.4.4 or later, which limits form submissions to http[s] URIs and prevents file: URI submissions that could overwrite local files.

Fix this in Fedora Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-12803 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-12803 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data