# CVE-2020-13238: Denial of service in n/a

> Attackers can halt industrial processes on Mitsubishi MELSEC iQ-R PLCs by sending unauthenticated crafted packets, requiring physical access to restore production.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 Jun 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-96m8-jhp6-v772

## What is CVE-2020-13238?

CVE-2020-13238 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 10 Jun 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Mitsubishi MELSEC iQ-R Series PLCs with firmware 33 allow attackers to halt the industrial process by sending an unauthenticated crafted packet over the network, because this denial of service attack consumes excessive CPU time. After halting, physical access to the PLC is required in order to restore production.

Weakness: CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-13238?

It affects 21 products.


Products: Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R00cpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R01cpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R02cpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R04cpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R08cpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R08fcpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R08pcpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R08sfcpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R120cpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R120fcpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R120pcpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R120sfcpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R16cpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R16fcpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R16pcpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R16sfcpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R32cpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R32fcpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R32pcpu Firmware, Mitsubishielectric Melsec Iq-R32sfcpu Firmware and 1 more.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-13238?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-13238 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-13238 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-13238 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2020-5652](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-5652/): Denial of service in MELSEC iQ-R, Q and L series (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-13238 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-13238 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 10 Jun 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-2020-13238 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-2020-13238/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-13238/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-13238
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-13238
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-13238

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-13238/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.