# CVE-2020-8989: Information disclosure in n/a

> Remote attackers can infer voter choices by analyzing network traffic data lengths, compromising ballot secrecy in the Voatz Android application.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 13 Feb 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-r7wh-r6rc-3qm5

## What is CVE-2020-8989?

CVE-2020-8989 is a medium-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 13 Feb 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Voatz application 2020-01-01 for Android, the amount of data transmitted during a single voter's vote depends on the different lengths of the metadata across the available voting choices, which makes it easier for remote attackers to discover this voter's choice by sniffing the network. For example, a small amount of sniffed data may indicate that a vote was cast for the candidate with the least metadata. An active man-in-the-middle attacker can leverage this behavior to disrupt voters' abilities to vote for a candidate opposed by the attacker.

Weakness: CWE-203 (Observable Discrepancy)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-8989?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Voatz Voatz.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-8989?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-8989 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-8989 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-8989 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2020-8988](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-8988/): Weak cryptography in n/a (medium 5.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-8989 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-8989 is a medium-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 13 Feb 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-2020-8989 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. 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-2020-8989/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-8989/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-8989
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-8989
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-8989

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-8989/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.