Grub2
CVE-2020-15706
MEDIUM
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2025 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Concurrency control, locking
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Impact | CVSS score of 6.4 (MEDIUM). Attack characteristics: local attack vector, high complexity, high privileges required, no user interaction not required. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | Successful exploitation could compromise the medium-severity affected system. |
Get an e-mail when this CVE is exploited, patched or re-scored. Free account.
Alert meAnalysisAI
GRUB2 contains a race condition in grub_script_function_create() leading to a use-after-free vulnerability which can be triggered by redefining a function whilst the same function is already. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.4).
RemediationAI
A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Apply vendor patches when available. Implement network segmentation and monitoring as interim mitigations.
Affects your stack
Find out whether the stacks and servers you run are on an affected version.
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
This vulnerability is classified under CWE-362. GRUB2 contains a race condition in grub_script_function_create() leading to a use-after-free vulnerability which can be triggered by redefining a function whilst the same function is already executing, leading to arbitrary code execution and secure boot restriction bypass.04 and prior versions. Affected products include: Gnu Grub2, Redhat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host, Redhat Openshift Container Platform, Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Debian Debian Linux. Version information: version 2.04.
Know when Grub2 gets its next vulnerability
- Watch products and get an email when something new is published
- Check this CVE against your own stack and servers
- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
No credit card · 7-day full trial
Severity by source
AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.
CVSS VectorNVD
DescriptionNVD
GRUB2 contains a race condition in grub_script_function_create() leading to a use-after-free vulnerability which can be triggered by redefining a function whilst the same function is already executing, leading to arbitrary code execution and secure boot restriction bypass. This issue affects GRUB2 version 2.04 and prior versions.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Race conditions occur when multiple concurrent requests exploit the brief time gap between checking a condition and acting upon it (TOCTOU - Time of Check, Time of Use).
Remote Code Execution represents the critical moment when an attacker successfully runs arbitrary code on a target system without physical access.
Affected Products (CPE)NVD
Multiple integer underflows in Grub2 1.98 through 2.02 allow physically proximate attackers to bypass authentication, ob
An out-of-bounds write flaw was found in grub2's NTFS filesystem driver. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerabil
GRUB2 does not call the module fini functions on exit, leading to Debian/Ubuntu's peimage GRUB2 module leaving UEFI syst
Integer overflows were discovered in the functions grub_cmd_initrd and grub_initrd_init in the efilinux component of GRU
GNU GRUB (aka GRUB2) through 2.12 has a heap-based buffer overflow in fs/hfs.c via crafted sblock data in an HFS filesys
An out-of-bounds read flaw was found on grub2's NTFS filesystem driver. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.6), this vulnerabi
A buffer overflow was found in grub_font_construct_glyph(). Rated high severity (CVSS 8.6), this vulnerability is no aut
A flaw was found in grub2 in versions prior to 2.06. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.2), this vulnerability is low attack co
A flaw was found in grub2, prior to version 2.06. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.2), this vulnerability is low attack compl
A flaw was found in grub2. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch
A flaw was found in the HFS filesystem. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No
When reading data from a hfs filesystem, grub's hfs filesystem module uses user-controlled parameters from the filesyste
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
GitHub PoC
Exploit-DB