dbcve.org
RouterosOperating system · Mikrotik

CVE-2020-20213

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-07-07
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
71/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable 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
Mikrotik RouterOs 6.44.5 (long-term tree) suffers from an stack exhaustion vulnerability in the /nova/bin/net process. An authenticated remote attacker can cause a Denial of Service due to overloading the systems CPU.

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 · moderate confidence

Mikrotik RouterOS 6.44.5 contains a stack exhaustion vulnerability in the /nova/bin/net process. An authenticated remote attacker can exploit this to cause a Denial of Service by overloading the system CPU through repeated malicious requests.

MitigationUpdate RouterOS to a patched version beyond 6.44.5. If immediate patching is not possible, restrict administrative access to trusted users only to reduce attack surface.

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
RouterosOperating system
Affected:= 6.44.5

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
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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. Identify installed RouterOS version
    Run /system/resource print or /system/package/print in RouterOS terminal to view the installed version
    Affected if The version listed is exactly 6.44.5
  2. Check for remote administrative services
    Run /ip service print to see which management interfaces (www, api, ssh, winbox) are enabled and their accessible addresses
    Affected if Any remote admin service is enabled and reachable from untrusted networks
  3. Verify /nova/bin/net process exists
    Run /file print where name contains 'net' or check /nova/bin/ directory contents if accessible
    Affected if The /nova/bin/net binary is present on the system

If the RouterOS version is exactly 6.44.5 and remote administrative services are exposed, the environment is affected by this vulnerability.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update RouterOS to a patched version beyond 6.44.5. If immediate patching is not possible, restrict administrative access to trusted users only to reduce attack surface.

Fix this in Routeros Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,100
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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-2020-20213 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
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