# CVE-2020-12460: Memory corruption in n/a

> Remote attackers can trigger heap overflow via crafted DMARC reports, potentially causing memory corruption or code execution in OpenDMARC.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/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:** Yes
- **Published:** 27 Jul 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2020-12460, DLA-2639-1, GHSA-8c3p-8wh2-8ggf, UBUNTU-CVE-2020-12460

## What is CVE-2020-12460?

CVE-2020-12460 is a critical memory corruption vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 27 Jul 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

OpenDMARC through 1.3.2 and 1.4.x through 1.4.0-Beta1 has improper null termination in the function opendmarc_xml_parse that can result in a one-byte heap overflow in opendmarc_xml when parsing a specially crafted DMARC aggregate report. This can cause remote memory corruption when a '\0' byte overwrites the heap metadata of the next chunk and its PREV_INUSE flag.

Weakness: CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-12460?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Fedoraproject Fedora, Trusteddomain Opendmarc.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-12460?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2020-12460 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-12460 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Debian Debian Linux

- [CVE-2015-3306](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-3306/): ProFTPD Improper Access Control (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-49113](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-49113/): RoundCube Webmail Deserialization of Untrusted Data (critical 9.9, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-24061](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-24061/): GNU InetUtils Argument Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-39682](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-39682/): Linux Kernel Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-9680](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-9680/): Mozilla Firefox Use-After-Free (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-12460 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-12460 is a critical memory corruption vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 27 Jul 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-2020-12460 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Debian Debian Linux. 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-2020-12460/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-12460/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-12460
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-12460
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-12460

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-12460/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.