CVE-2020-8428 Use after free in n/a

What is CVE-2020-8428?

CVE-2020-8428 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 28 Jan 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

fs/namei.c in the Linux kernel before 5.5 has a may_create_in_sticky use-after-free, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (OOPS) or possibly obtain sensitive information from kernel memory, aka CID-d0cb50185ae9. One attack vector may be an open system call for a UNIX domain socket, if the socket is being moved to a new parent directory and its old parent directory is being removed.

Weakness: CWE-416

Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-8428?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2020-8428?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.

Is CVE-2020-8428 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-8428 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2020-8428, GHSA-9x38-4g8c-26wp, UBUNTU-CVE-2020-8428, USN-4320-1.