What is CVE-2020-36657?

CVE-2020-36657 is a high-severity vulnerability in Uptimed Project, classified under Improper Link Resolution Before File Access. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2023-01-26.

How severe is CVE-2020-36657?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.

Vulnerability in Uptimed Project

CVE-2020-36657

uptimed before 0.4.6-r1 on Gentoo allows local users (with access to the uptimed user account) to gain root privileges by creating a hard link within the /var/spool/uptimed directory, because there is an unsafe chown -R call.

Published 2023-01-26 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.004 (32.8th percentile), scored 2026-10-01.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 33rd percentile — 32.8% 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

Uptimed Project

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-59 — Improper Link Resolution Before File Access

References

bugs.gentoo.org/630810 (Exploit, Patch, Third Party Advisory)
security.gentoo.org/glsa/202305-14 (vendor-advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-36657?: CVE-2020-36657 is a high-severity vulnerability in Uptimed Project, classified under Improper Link Resolution Before File Access. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2023-01-26.
How severe is CVE-2020-36657?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.