CVE-2020-10781

Summary

CVE	CVE-2020-10781
State	PUBLISHED
Assigner	redhat
Source Priority	CVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published	2020-09-16 13:15:10 UTC
Updated	2026-10-08 21:17:20 UTC
Description	A flaw was found in the Linux Kernel before 5.8-rc6 in the ZRAM kernel module, where a user with a local account and the ability to read the /sys/class/zram-control/hot_add file can create ZRAM device nodes in the /dev/ directory. This read allocates kernel memory and is not accounted for a user that triggers the creation of that ZRAM device. With this vulnerability, continually reading the device may consume a large amount of system memory and cause the Out-of-Memory (OOM) killer to activate and terminate random userspace processes, possibly making the system inoperable.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 5.5 MEDIUM from [email protected]

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

EPSS: 0.003110000 probability, percentile 0.220870000 (date 2026-10-10)

Problem Types: CWE-732 | CWE-732 CWE-732

Version	Source	Type	Score	Severity	Vector
3.1	[email protected]	Primary	5.5	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`
3.1	[email protected]	Secondary	5.5	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`
3.1	CNA	DECLARED	5.5	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`
2.0	[email protected]	Primary	4.9		`AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C`

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector

Local

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

Low

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

None

Integrity

None

Availability

High

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

CVSS v2.0 Breakdown

Access Vector

Local

Access Complexity

Low

Authentication

None

Confidentiality

None

Integrity

None

Availability

Complete

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

NVD Known Affected Configurations (CPE 2.3)

Type	Vendor	Product	Version	Update	Edition	Language
Operating System	Debian	Debian Linux	9.0	All	All	All
Operating System	Linux	Linux Kernel	All	All	All	All
Operating System	Linux	Linux Kernel	5.8.0	-	All	All
Operating System	Linux	Linux Kernel	5.8.0	rc1	All	All
Operating System	Linux	Linux Kernel	5.8.0	rc2	All	All
Operating System	Linux	Linux Kernel	5.8.0	rc3	All	All
Operating System	Linux	Linux Kernel	5.8.0	rc4	All	All
Operating System	Linux	Linux Kernel	5.8.0	rc5	All	All

Vendor Declared Affected Products

Source	Vendor	Product	Version	Platforms
CNA	Linux Kernel	Kernel	affected before 5.8-rc6	Not specified

References

Reference	Source	Link	Tags
kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git - Linux kernel source tree	af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108	git.kernel.org	Patch, Vendor Advisory
1847832 – (CVE-2020-10781) CVE-2020-10781 kernel: zram sysfs resource consumption	af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108	bugzilla.redhat.com	Issue Tracking, Third Party Advisory
oss-security - CVE-2020-10781 kernel: zram sysfs resource consumption	af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108	www.openwall.com	Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory
[SECURITY] [DLA 2385-1] linux-4.19 security update	af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108	lists.debian.org	Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
CVE Program record	CVE.ORG	www.cve.org	canonical
NVD vulnerability detail	NVD	nvd.nist.gov	canonical, analysis

No vendor comments have been submitted for this CVE.

Legacy QID Mappings

174728 SUSE Enterprise Linux Security update for the Linux Kernel (SUSE-SU-2020:2122-1)
353137 Amazon Linux Security Advisory for kernel : ALAS2KERNEL-5.4-2022-014
377038 Alibaba Cloud Linux Security Update for cloud-kernel (ALINUX2-SA-2020:0198)
750376 OpenSUSE Security Update for RT kernel (openSUSE-SU-2021:0242-1)
900076 CBL-Mariner Linux Security Update for kernel 5.4.91
903322 Common Base Linux Mariner (CBL-Mariner) Security Update for kernel (3505)
905977 Common Base Linux Mariner (CBL-Mariner) Security Update for kernel (3505-1)