# CVE-2020-10255: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Attackers can exploit TRRespass in DRAM chips to escalate privileges, execute code, or corrupt keys via RowHammer bit flips.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.0 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 10 Mar 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-rrx7-9hqv-3mq2

## What is CVE-2020-10255?

CVE-2020-10255 is a critical vulnerability in n/a, published on 10 Mar 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Modern DRAM chips (DDR4 and LPDDR4 after 2015) are affected by a vulnerability in deployment of internal mitigations against RowHammer attacks known as Target Row Refresh (TRR), aka the TRRespass issue. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker needs to create certain access patterns to trigger bit flips on affected memory modules, aka a Many-sided RowHammer attack. This means that, even when chips advertised as RowHammer-free are used, attackers may still be able to conduct privilege-escalation attacks against the kernel, conduct privilege-escalation attacks against the Sudo binary, and achieve cross-tenant virtual-machine access by corrupting RSA keys. The issue affects chips produced by SK Hynix, Micron, and Samsung. NOTE: tracking DRAM supply-chain issues is not straightforward because a single product model from a single vendor may use DRAM chips from different manufacturers.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-10255?

It affects 6 products.


Products: Micron Ddr4 Sdram, Micron Lpddr4, Samsung Ddr4, Samsung Lpddr4, Skhynix Ddr4 Sdram, Skhynix Lpddr4.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-10255?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-10255 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-10255 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-10255 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-10255 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-10255 is a critical vulnerability in n/a, published on 10 Mar 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-10255 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-10255/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-10255/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-10255
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-10255
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-10255

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-10255/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.