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FreeBSDOperating system

CVE-2020-7458

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-07-09
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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
In FreeBSD 12.1-STABLE before r362281, 11.4-STABLE before r362281, and 11.4-RELEASE before p1, long values in the user-controlled PATH environment variable cause posix_spawnp to write beyond the end of the heap allocated stack possibly leading to arbitrary code execution.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-787

The program writes past the bounds of a buffer, overwriting adjacent memory an attacker can turn to their advantage. Crafted input can overwrite control data and redirect execution. Remediation is validating every index and length before a write, plus modern memory-safety mitigations.

General guidance for the out-of-bounds write class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
FreeBSDOperating system
Affected:= 11.4= 12.1

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
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

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.

dbcve · scoped
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch security.FreeBSD.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

FreeBSD 11.4-RELEASE-p1 or later, or FreeBSD 11.4-STABLE/12.1-STABLE after r362281, or current stable branch (12.2+/13.x)

  1. Back up all critical data and configurations before starting the upgrade
  2. Update your FreeBSD system to the latest supported stable branch using `freebsd-update` or by rebuilding from source at revision r362281 or later
  3. For FreeBSD 11.4 systems: Run `freebsd-update -r 11.4-RELEASE-pN upgrade` then `freebsd-update install` and reboot, or upgrade to 11.4-RELEASE-p1 or later which contains the fix
  4. For FreeBSD 12.1 systems: Upgrade to 12.1-STABLE after r362281, or upgrade to 12.2-STABLE or later which includes the fix
  5. After upgrade, reboot the system and verify the fix is applied by checking the kernel version or revision
  6. Test critical applications that use posix_spawnp to ensure functionality
Caveat Standard FreeBSD upgrade risks apply - review release notes for compatibility notices, especially for third-party kernel modules or custom configurations that may require rebuilding

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

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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-2020-7458 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
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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