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Vulnerability record · CVE-2020-15707 · published 29 July 2020

CVE-2020-15707: Gnu grub2 race condition vulnerability

Gnu · Grub2

Integer overflows were discovered in the functions grub_cmd_initrd and grub_initrd_init in the efilinux component of GRUB2, as shipped in Debian, Red Hat, and Ubuntu (the functionality is not included in GRUB2 upstream), leading to a heap-based buffer overflow. These could be triggered by an extremely large number of arguments to the initrd command on 32-bit architectures, or a crafted filesystem with very large files on any architecture. An attacker could use this to execute arbitrary code and bypass UEFI Secure Boot restrictions. This issue affects GRUB2 version 2.04 and prior versions.

6.4 CVSS 3.1 Medium EPSS 1.6% · top 25.3% CWE-362 · Race conditionCWE-190 · Integer overflow
6.4CVSS 3.1 base score, v2 4.4
1.6%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
15Affected product versions listed by NVD
34References, 2 tagged exploit
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

Integer overflows were discovered in the functions grub_cmd_initrd and grub_initrd_init in the efilinux component of GRUB2, as shipped in Debian, Red Hat, and Ubuntu (the functionality is not included in GRUB2 upstream), leading to a heap-based buffer overflow. These could be triggered by an extremely large number of arguments to the initrd command on 32-bit architectures, or a crafted filesystem with very large files on any architecture. An attacker could use this to execute arbitrary code and bypass UEFI Secure Boot restrictions. This issue affects GRUB2 version 2.04 and prior versions.

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

15 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-08/msg00016.html Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-08/msg00017.html Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
http://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-4432-1 Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/07/29/3 Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
https://access.redhat.com/security/vulnerabilities/grub2bootloader Third Party Advisory
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/grub-devel/2020-07/msg00034.html Issue TrackingVendor Advisory
https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/ADV200011 PatchThird Party AdvisoryVendor Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202104-05 Third Party Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20200731-0008/ Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4432-1/ Third Party Advisory
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SecurityTeam/KnowledgeBase/GRUB2SecureBootBypass Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2020-GRUB-UEFI-SecureBoot Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4735 Third Party Advisory
https://www.eclypsium.com/2020/07/29/theres-a-hole-in-the-boot/ ExploitThird Party Advisory
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/07/29/3 Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
https://www.suse.com/c/suse-addresses-grub2-secure-boot-issue/ Third Party Advisory
https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=000019673 Third Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-08/msg00016.html Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-08/msg00017.html Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
http://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-4432-1 Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/07/29/3 Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
https://access.redhat.com/security/vulnerabilities/grub2bootloader Third Party Advisory
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/grub-devel/2020-07/msg00034.html Issue TrackingVendor Advisory
https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/ADV200011 PatchThird Party AdvisoryVendor Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202104-05 Third Party Advisory
https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20200731-0008/ Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4432-1/ Third Party Advisory
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SecurityTeam/KnowledgeBase/GRUB2SecureBootBypass Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2020-GRUB-UEFI-SecureBoot Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4735 Third Party Advisory
https://www.eclypsium.com/2020/07/29/theres-a-hole-in-the-boot/ ExploitThird Party Advisory
https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/07/29/3 Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
https://www.suse.com/c/suse-addresses-grub2-secure-boot-issue/ Third Party Advisory
https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=000019673 Third Party Advisory

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Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2020-15707), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-29). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.