# CVE-2020-8229: Denial of service in Desktop Client

> A memory leak in the Nextcloud Desktop Client can cause a denial of service against the host system.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 10 Aug 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-cxfw-jrj9-6wmg

## What is CVE-2020-8229?

CVE-2020-8229 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Desktop Client, published on 10 Aug 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A memory leak in the OCUtil.dll library used by Nextcloud Desktop Client 2.6.4 can lead to a DoS against the host system.

Weakness: CWE-401 (Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime), CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-8229?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Nextcloud Desktop.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-8229?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-8229 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-8229 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-8229 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Desktop Client

- [CVE-2024-46958](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-46958/): Misconfiguration in n/a (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2020-8224](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-8224/): Code injection in Desktop Client (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2020-8225](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-8225/): Information disclosure in Desktop Client (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2021-37617](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-37617/): Untrusted Search Path in Nextcloud Desktop Client (high 7.3)
- [CVE-2023-28999](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-28999/): Nextcloud: Lack of authenticity of metadata keys allows a malicious server to gain access to E2EE folders (medium 6.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-8229 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-8229 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Desktop Client, published on 10 Aug 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-2020-8229 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Desktop Client. 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-2020-8229/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-8229/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-8229
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-8229
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-8229

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-8229/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.