What is CVE-2020-12062?

CVE-2020-12062 is a high-severity vulnerability in OpenBSD OpenSSH, classified under Improper Input Validation. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2020-06-01.

How severe is CVE-2020-12062?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.

Is CVE-2020-12062 known to be exploited?

6 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Improper input validation in OpenBSD OpenSSH

CVE-2020-12062

The scp client in OpenSSH 8.2 incorrectly sends duplicate responses to the server upon a utimes system call failure, which allows a malicious unprivileged user on the remote server to overwrite arbitrary files in the client's download directory by creating a crafted subdirectory anywhere on the remote server. The victim must use the command scp -rp to download a file hierarchy containing, anywhere inside, this crafted subdirectory. NOTE: the vendor points out that "this attack can achieve no more than a hostile peer is already able to achieve within the scp protocol" and "utimes does not fail under normal circumstances.

Vulnerability class: Drupalgeddon 2 (CVE-2018-7600)

Published 2020-06-01 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.022 (81.6th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 82nd percentile — 81.6% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.022 · newest: 0.022 · change: 0.000

Affected products

OpenBSD OpenSSH — versions 8.2

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-20 — Improper Input Validation

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/05/27/1 (Mailing List, Third Party Advisory, Release Notes)
www.openssh.com/txt/release-8.3 (Release Notes, Vendor Advisory)
github.com/openssh/openssh-portable/commit/955854cafca88e0cdcd3d09ca1ad4ada4653… (Patch, Third Party Advisory)
github.com/openssh/openssh-portable/commit/aad87b88fc2536b1ea023213729aaf4eaabe… (Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-12062?: CVE-2020-12062 is a high-severity vulnerability in OpenBSD OpenSSH, classified under Improper Input Validation. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2020-06-01.
How severe is CVE-2020-12062?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2020-12062 known to be exploited?: 6 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.