# CVE-2020-8285: Denial of service in https://github.com/curl/curl

> An attacker can cause a stack overflow and crash the application via malicious FTP wildcard patterns in the curl library.

- **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:** 14 Dec 2020
- **Updated:** 14 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2020-8285, CLEANSTART-2026-AM91328, CURL-CVE-2020-8285, DEBIAN-CVE-2020-8285, ECHO-52fa-da93-892e, GHSA-4p2h-jggv-23jg, JLSEC-2025-24, UBUNTU-CVE-2020-8285

## What is CVE-2020-8285?

CVE-2020-8285 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Apple Mac Os X, published on 14 Dec 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

curl 7.21.0 to and including 7.73.0 is vulnerable to uncontrolled recursion due to a stack overflow issue in FTP wildcard match parsing.

Weakness: CWE-787 (Out-of-bounds Write), CWE-674 (Uncontrolled Recursion)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-8285?

It affects 22 products.


Products: Apple Mac Os X, Apple Macos, Debian Debian Linux, Fedoraproject Fedora, Fujitsu M10-1 Firmware, Fujitsu M10-4 Firmware, Fujitsu M10-4s Firmware, Fujitsu M12-1 Firmware, Fujitsu M12-2 Firmware, Fujitsu M12-2s Firmware, Haxx Libcurl, Netapp Clustered Data Ontap, Netapp Hci Bootstrap Os, Netapp Hci Management Node, Netapp Hci Storage Node Firmware, Netapp Solidfire, Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management, Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core Policy, Oracle Essbase, Oracle Peoplesoft Enterprise Peopletools and 2 more.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-8285?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2020-8285 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2020-8285 exists.

## Other vulnerabilities in Apple Mac Os X

- [CVE-2014-7169](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-7169/): GNU Bourne-Again Shell (Bash) Arbitrary Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2014-6271](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-6271/): GNU Bourne-Again Shell (Bash) Arbitrary Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2012-1823](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-1823/): PHP-CGI Query String Parameter (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2021-30713](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-30713/): Apple macOS Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2019-8526](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-8526/): Apple macOS Use-After-Free (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-8285 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-8285 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Apple Mac Os X, published on 14 Dec 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2020-8285 exists.

Affected product: Apple Mac Os X. 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-2020-8285/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-8285/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-8285
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-8285
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-8285

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-8285/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.