What is CVE-2020-10768?

CVE-2020-10768 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Kernel, classified under Expected Behavior Violation. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2020-09-16.

How severe is CVE-2020-10768?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.

Vulnerability in Linux Kernel

CVE-2020-10768

A flaw was found in the Linux Kernel before 5.8-rc1 in the prctl() function, where it can be used to enable indirect branch speculation after it has been disabled. This call incorrectly reports it as being 'force disabled' when it is not and opens the system to Spectre v2 attacks. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to confidentiality.

Published 2020-09-16 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.004 (31.9th percentile), scored 2026-10-03.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 32nd percentile — 31.9% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.004 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Linux Kernel
Linux Kernel — versions before 5.8-rc1

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-440 — Expected Behavior Violation

References

git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/ (Patch, Vendor Advisory)
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi (Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-10768?: CVE-2020-10768 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Kernel, classified under Expected Behavior Violation. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2020-09-16.
How severe is CVE-2020-10768?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.