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Low · 3.9 Public exploit CVE-2020-5254 EUVD-2020-26464

NetHack hilite_status parsing privilege escalation

Published Mar 10, 2020 · Updated Aug 4, 2024 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Description

In NetHack before 3.6.6, some out-of-bound values for the hilite_status option can be exploited. NetHack 3.6.6 resolves this issue.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
NetHack NetHack < 3.6.6 —

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 nethack 3.6.6-1 —
Debian 13 nethack 3.6.6-1 —
Debian 12 nethack 3.6.6-1 —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS nethack No fix yet —

Public exploits

Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.

Third-party code, not reviewed by us. Public PoCs are sometimes fake or contain malware. Read the code first and run it only in an isolated lab, against systems you are authorised to test.

GitHub 1 repository

Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.

References