What is CVE-2020-16121?

CVE-2020-16121 is a low-severity vulnerability in Packagekit, classified under Generation of Error Message Containing Sensitive Information. CVSS score: 3.3/10. Published 2020-11-07.

How severe is CVE-2020-16121?

Low severity. CVSS v3 base score is 3.3 out of 10.

Information disclosure in Packagekit

CVE-2020-16121

PackageKit provided detailed error messages to unprivileged callers that exposed information about file presence and mimetype of files that the user would be unable to determine on its own.

Published 2020-11-07 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 3.3 (Low). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.005 (38.0th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 38th percentile — 38.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.005 · newest: 0.005 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Packagekit — versions 1.1.13-2ubuntu, 1.1.9-1ubuntu2, 0.8.17-4ubuntu6
Packagekit Project
Canonical Ubuntu Linux — versions 20.04

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-209 — Generation of Error Message Containing Sensitive Information

References

www.eyecontrol.nl/blog/the-story-of-3-cves-in-ubuntu-desktop.html (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)
bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/packagekit/+bug/1888887 (Third Party Advisory, Issue Tracking)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-16121?: CVE-2020-16121 is a low-severity vulnerability in Packagekit, classified under Generation of Error Message Containing Sensitive Information. CVSS score: 3.3/10. Published 2020-11-07.
How severe is CVE-2020-16121?: Low severity. CVSS v3 base score is 3.3 out of 10.