# CVE-2020-12801: Crash-recovered MSOffice encrypted documents defaulted to not to using encryption on next save

> LibreOffice fails to maintain encryption for recovered Microsoft Office documents, potentially exposing sensitive data to unauthorized users.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 18 May 2020
- **Updated:** 18 Nov 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2020-12801, GHSA-52g9-8355-62qv, MGASA-2020-0258, SUSE-SU-2020:1530-1, SUSE-SU-2020:1731-1, UBUNTU-CVE-2020-12801, openSUSE-SU-2020:0786-1

## What is CVE-2020-12801?

CVE-2020-12801 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Libreoffice Libreoffice, published on 18 May 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

If LibreOffice has an encrypted document open and crashes, that document is auto-saved encrypted. On restart, LibreOffice offers to restore the document and prompts for the password to decrypt it. If the recovery is successful, and if the file format of the recovered document was not LibreOffice's default ODF file format, then affected versions of LibreOffice default that subsequent saves of the document are unencrypted. This may lead to a user accidentally saving a MSOffice file format document unencrypted while believing it to be encrypted. This issue affects: LibreOffice 6-3 series versions prior to 6.3.6; 6-4 series versions prior to 6.4.3.

Weakness: CWE-312 (Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information), CWE-311 (Missing Encryption of Sensitive Data)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-12801?

It affects 2 products.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `libreoffice` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP4 | All versions | 6.4.4.2-43.65.5 |
| `libreoffice` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP5 | All versions | 6.4.4.2-43.65.5 |
| `libreoffice` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension 12 SP4 | All versions | 6.4.4.2-43.65.5 |
| `libreoffice` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension 12 SP5 | All versions | 6.4.4.2-43.65.5 |
| `libreoffice` | SUSE:Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension 15 SP1 | All versions | 6.4.4.2-8.19.4 |
| `libreoffice` | openSUSE:Leap 15.1 | All versions | 6.4.4.2-lp151.3.15.1 |

Products: Libreoffice Libreoffice, Opensuse Leap.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-12801?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2020-12801 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-12801 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Libreoffice Libreoffice

- [CVE-2024-5261](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-5261/): TLS certificate are not properly verified when utilizing LibreOfficeKit (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2019-9855](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-9855/): Windows 8.3 path equivalence handling flaw allows LibreLogo script execution (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2018-14939](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-14939/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-8358](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-8358/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-7882](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-7882/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-12801 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-12801 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Libreoffice Libreoffice, published on 18 May 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-2020-12801 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Libreoffice Libreoffice. 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-2020-12801/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-12801/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-12801
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-12801
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-12801

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-12801/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.