CVE-2024-20505
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 · uneditedA vulnerability in the PDF parsing module of Clam AntiVirus (ClamAV) versions 1.4.0, 1.3.2 and prior versions, all 1.2.x versions, 1.0.6 and prior versions, all 0.105.x versions, all 0.104.x versions, and 0.103.11 and all prior versions could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service (DoS) condition on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to an out of bounds read. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by submitting a crafted PDF file to be scanned by ClamAV on an affected device. An exploit could allow the attacker to terminate the scanning process.
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 analysisThe code reads past the end (or before the start) of a buffer, returning memory that was never meant to be exposed. Attackers use it to leak secrets like keys or to defeat memory-protection defences. Remediation is validating indices and lengths before every read.
General guidance for the out-of-bounds read 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< 0.103.12>= 0.104.0, < 1.0.7>= 1.2.0, < 1.3.2= 1.4.0CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 · scoped0.103.121.0.71.3.2
ClamAV 1.4.1 (or latest stable 1.x release)
- Identify currently installed ClamAV version using 'clamconf -v' or 'clamscan --version'
- Stop ClamAV services to prevent scanning during upgrade: 'systemctl stop clamd' or 'service clamd stop'
- Upgrade ClamAV using your package manager (e.g., 'apt update && apt install clamav' for Debian/Ubuntu, 'yum update clamav' for RHEL/CentOS, or 'brew upgrade clamav' for macOS)
- Verify the upgrade was successful by running 'clamscan --version' and confirming the version matches 1.4.1, 1.3.2, 1.0.7, or 0.103.12
- Restart ClamAV services: 'systemctl start clamd' or 'service clamd start'
- Optionally, update virus signatures with 'freshclam' before resuming scanning
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-20505 — 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-2024-20505 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
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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