# CVE-2020-6071: Denial of service in Videolabs

> An attacker can cause a denial of service in libmicrodns by sending crafted mDNS messages with recursive compression pointers.

- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 24 Mar 2020
- **Updated:** 8 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2020-6071, GHSA-g97q-39hw-52p8, UBUNTU-CVE-2020-6071

## What is CVE-2020-6071?

CVE-2020-6071 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 24 Mar 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An exploitable denial-of-service vulnerability exists in the resource record-parsing functionality of Videolabs libmicrodns 0.1.0. When parsing compressed labels in mDNS messages, the compression pointer is followed without checking for recursion, leading to a denial of service. An attacker can send an mDNS message to trigger this vulnerability.

Weakness: CWE-674 (Uncontrolled Recursion)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-6071?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Debian Debian Linux, Videolabs Libmicrodns.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-6071?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2020-6071 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-6071 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-2020-6071 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-6071 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Debian Debian Linux, published on 24 Mar 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-2020-6071 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-2020-6071/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-6071/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-6071
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-6071
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-6071

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-6071/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.