dbcve.org
BisonApplication · Gnu

CVE-2020-14150

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-06-15
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.5.4 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click

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
GNU Bison before 3.5.4 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash). NOTE: there is a risk only if Bison is used with untrusted input, and an observed bug happens to cause unsafe behavior with a specific compiler/architecture. The bug reports were intended to show that a crash may occur in Bison itself, not that a crash may occur in code that is generated by Bison.

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

GNU Bison before 3.5.4 contains a vulnerability that can be triggered when processing untrusted input files, causing the Bison application itself to crash. The crash occurs due to a bug that manifests with specific compiler/architecture combinations, affecting only the parser generator tool rather than code it generates.

MitigationUpgrade GNU Bison to version 3.5.4 or later. If upgrade is not immediately feasible, avoid processing untrusted/unsandboxed Bison grammar files with affected versions.

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
BisonApplication
Affected:< 3.5.4

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

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

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. Check installed Bison version
    Run 'bison --version' or 'bison -V' on the command line to display the version number
    Affected if The reported version is less than 3.5.4 (for example, 3.5.3, 3.5.2, etc.)
  2. Identify if Bison processes untrusted grammar files
    Review your workflows to determine whether Bison is used to parse grammar files (.y files) from untrusted or external sources
    Affected if Bison is used to process grammar files from untrusted or unsandboxed sources and the installed version is below 3.5.4
  3. Verify environment compiler and architecture
    Check the compiler version (gcc --version) and system architecture (uname -m) to see if the specific combination that triggers the crash is present
    Affected if The specific compiler/architecture combination that triggers the bug is in use alongside a vulnerable Bison version

You are affected if your installed GNU Bison version is below 3.5.4 AND you process untrusted grammar files, especially on compiler/architecture combinations known to trigger the crash.

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 3.5.4 or later
Fixed in 3.5.4
Interim mitigation

Upgrade GNU Bison to version 3.5.4 or later. If upgrade is not immediately feasible, avoid processing untrusted/unsandboxed Bison grammar files with affected versions.

Fix this in Bison Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,040
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,664.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-14150 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2020-14150 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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