Classic Buffer OverflowWeakness · CWE-120

CVE-2020-36940

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-01-27
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges 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
Easy CD & DVD Cover Creator 4.13 contains a buffer overflow vulnerability in the serial number input field that allows attackers to crash the application. Attackers can generate a 6000-byte payload and paste it into the serial number field to trigger an application crash.

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

Easy CD & DVD Cover Creator 4.13 suffers from a buffer overflow vulnerability in the serial number input field where insufficient bounds checking allows a 6000-byte payload to overflow the allocated buffer, causing an application crash. The vulnerability is exploitable through simple input manipulation without authentication.

MitigationImplement strict input length validation on the serial number field to enforce maximum character limits and use safe string handling functions (e.g., strncpy, bounds-checked functions). Contact the vendor for an official patch as this is a critical-severity vulnerability.

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

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
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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. Verify Easy CD & DVD Cover Creator is installed
    Check the system for Easy CD & DVD Cover Creator installation directories or use system inventory tools (e.g., Windows: Registry or Programs and Features; Linux: package manager or file system scan for executable)
    Affected if The application is present on the system
  2. Confirm the installed version is 4.13
    Locate the application executable or version information file (commonly found via Help > About, or the executable properties), or check registry entries on Windows
    Affected if The version is 4.13 (exact match to the affected version)
  3. Locate the serial number input functionality
    Launch the application and navigate to the serial number registration or activation screen, typically found under Help, Options, or during initial setup
    Affected if The application has a serial number input field present and accessible without authentication
  4. Verify buffer overflow vulnerability exists
    If possible, observe that the serial number field accepts more than the allocated buffer size; entering approximately 6000+ characters should trigger the overflow condition causing application instability or crash
    Affected if The serial number field accepts input exceeding normal character limits without strict bounds enforcement

A user is affected if Easy CD & DVD Cover Creator version 4.13 is installed and the serial number input field accepts excessive input without proper bounds checking, which can be confirmed by inputting approximately 6000 characters to trigger the overflow.

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

Implement strict input length validation on the serial number field to enforce maximum character limits and use safe string handling functions (e.g., strncpy, bounds-checked functions). Contact the vendor for an official patch as this is a critical-severity vulnerability.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
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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-2020-36940 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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