# CVE-2020-14309: Integer overflow in Grub

> An integer overflow in GRUB2's squashfs handling allows heap-based buffer overflows, potentially enabling code execution or privilege escalation.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 30 Jul 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2020-14309, AZL-6457, DEBIAN-CVE-2020-14309, GHSA-8whj-mpcj-4jv6, UBUNTU-CVE-2020-14309

## What is CVE-2020-14309?

CVE-2020-14309 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Opensuse Leap, published on 30 Jul 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

There's an issue with grub2 in all versions before 2.06 when handling squashfs filesystems containing a symbolic link with name length of UINT32 bytes in size. The name size leads to an arithmetic overflow leading to a zero-size allocation further causing a heap-based buffer overflow with attacker controlled data.

Weakness: CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write), CWE-190 (Integer Overflow or Wraparound)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-14309?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Gnu Grub2, Opensuse Leap.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-14309?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2020-14309 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-14309 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Opensuse Leap

- [CVE-2024-56737](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-56737/): Memory corruption in GRUB2 (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2022-28733](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-28733/): Integer underflow in grub_net_recv_ip4_packets (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2022-28734](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-28734/): Out-of-bounds write when handling split HTTP headers (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2025-61662](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-61662/): Grub2: missing unregister call for gettext command may lead to use-after-free (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2024-45782](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-45782/): Grub2: fs/hfs: strcpy() using the volume name (fs/hfs.c:382) (high 7.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-14309 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-14309 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Opensuse Leap, published on 30 Jul 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-14309 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Opensuse Leap. 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-2020-14309/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-14309/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-14309
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-14309
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-14309

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-14309/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.