CVE-2020-16127

Publication date 3 November 2020

Last updated 25 August 2025

Ubuntu priority

Cvss 3 Severity Score

Description

An Ubuntu-specific modification to AccountsService in versions before 0.6.55-0ubuntu13.2, among other earlier versions, would perform unbounded read operations on user-controlled ~/.pam_environment files, allowing an infinite loop if /dev/zero is symlinked to this location.

Read the notes from the security team

Status

Show unmaintained releases

Package	Ubuntu Release	Status
accountsservice	20.10 groovy	Fixed 0.6.55-0ubuntu13.2
	20.04 LTS focal	Fixed 0.6.55-0ubuntu12~20.04.4
	18.04 LTS bionic	Not affected
	16.04 LTS xenial	Not affected
	14.04 LTS trusty	Not affected

Notes

mdeslaur

This vulnerability is in an Ubuntu-specific patch and doesn't affect the upstream code.

Severity score breakdown

Parameter	Value
Base score	5.5 · Medium
Attack vector	Local
Attack complexity	Low
Privileges required	Low
User interaction	None
Scope	Unchanged
Confidentiality	None
Integrity impact	None
Availability impact	High
Vector	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H