# CVE-2020-12803: XForms submissions could overwrite local files

> Attackers can overwrite local files via malicious ODF forms in LibreOffice, requiring user interaction to submit the form.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 8 Jun 2020
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2020-12803, GHSA-gxcj-pjgw-2hvw, UBUNTU-CVE-2020-12803

## What is CVE-2020-12803?

CVE-2020-12803 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora, published on 8 Jun 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

ODF documents can contain forms to be filled out by the user. Similar to HTML forms, the contained form data can be submitted to a URI, for example, to an external web server. To create submittable forms, ODF implements the XForms W3C standard, which allows data to be submitted without the need for macros or other active scripting Prior to version 6.4.4 LibreOffice allowed forms to be submitted to any URI, including file: URIs, enabling form submissions to overwrite local files. User-interaction is required to submit the form, but to avoid the possibility of malicious documents engineered to maximize the possibility of inadvertent user submission this feature has now been limited to http[s] URIs, removing the possibility to overwrite local files. This issue affects: The Document Foundation LibreOffice versions prior to 6.4.4.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-12803?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Fedoraproject Fedora, Libreoffice Libreoffice, Opensuse Leap.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-12803?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2020-12803 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-12803 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Fedoraproject Fedora

- [CVE-2024-4577](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-4577/): PHP-CGI OS Command Injection (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2021-39226](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-39226/): Grafana Authentication Bypass (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2019-5544](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-5544/): VMware ESXi and Horizon DaaS OpenSLP Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-4947](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-4947/): Google Chromium V8 Type Confusion (critical 9.6, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2024-4671](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-4671/): Google Chromium Visuals Use-After-Free (critical 9.6, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-12803 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-12803 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Fedoraproject Fedora, published on 8 Jun 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-12803 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Fedoraproject Fedora. 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-2020-12803/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-12803/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-12803
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-12803
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-12803

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-12803/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.