CVE-2020-37126
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 · uneditedFree Desktop Clock 3.0 contains a stack overflow vulnerability in the Time Zones display name input that allows attackers to overwrite Structured Exception Handler (SEH) registers. Attackers can exploit the vulnerability by crafting a malicious Unicode input that triggers an access violation and potentially execute arbitrary code.
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 confidenceFree Desktop Clock 3.0 contains a stack overflow vulnerability in the Time Zones display name input field. Attackers can exploit this by providing malicious Unicode input that overflows a stack buffer and overwrites Structured Exception Handler (SEH) registers, triggering an access violation and potentially achieving arbitrary code execution.
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify Free Desktop Clock 3.0 is installedCheck the application installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\Free Desktop Clock or C:\Program Files (x86)\Free Desktop Clock) for freedesktopclock.exe, or look in Add/Remove Programs for Free Desktop Clock version 3.0Affected if The application version 3.0 is present on the system
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Locate Time Zones configuration dataSearch for configuration files in the application data folder (typically %APPDATA%\Free Desktop Clock or %LOCALAPPDATA%\Free Desktop Clock). Look for files named settings.ini, config.xml, or similar that may contain Time Zone display name entriesAffected if Time Zones configuration files exist with custom display name entries
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Inspect Time Zone display name valuesOpen the configuration files found in the previous step and locate sections containing display name or timezone label entries. Examine the character length and content of these valuesAffected if Any display name field contains unusually long strings (typically over 256 characters) or contains mixed Unicode characters that appear crafted
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Check application memory for overflow indicatorsRun the application and monitor for crashes when accessing the Time Zones settings panel. Use tools like Process Explorer to check for unexpected application termination or error logging in the application logs folderAffected if The application crashes or exhibits abnormal behavior when the Time Zones display name field is accessed or modified
You are affected if Free Desktop Clock 3.0 is installed and you have entered custom display names in the Time Zones feature that contain excessively long or crafted Unicode input.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataImplement strict input validation with length limits on the Time Zones display name input field, and apply bounds checking to prevent buffer overflows. Consider applying any available vendor security updates for Free Desktop Clock 3.0.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-37126 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-37126 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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