# CVE-2020-8992: Denial of service in n/a

> Attackers can cause a denial of service via a soft lockup by exploiting a crafted journal size in the Linux kernel ext4 filesystem.

- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 14 Feb 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2020-8992, GHSA-44rm-95c5-h9cw, UBUNTU-CVE-2020-8992

## What is CVE-2020-8992?

CVE-2020-8992 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 14 Feb 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

ext4_protect_reserved_inode in fs/ext4/block_validity.c in the Linux kernel through 5.5.3 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (soft lockup) via a crafted journal size.

Weakness: CWE-834 (Excessive Iteration), CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-8992?

It affects 10 products.


Products: Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Linux kernel, Netapp Active Iq Unified Manager, Netapp Cloud Backup, Netapp Data Availability Services, Netapp H410c Firmware, Netapp Hci Management Node, Netapp Solidfire, Netapp Steelstore Cloud Integrated Storage, Opensuse Leap.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-8992?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2020-8992 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-8992 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux

- [CVE-2020-11651](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-11651/): SaltStack Salt Authentication Bypass (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2020-7247](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-7247/): OpenSMTPD Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2019-16928](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-16928/): Exim Out-of-bounds Write (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2018-6789](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-6789/): Exim Buffer Overflow (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2015-2590](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-2590/): Oracle Java SE and Java SE Embedded Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-8992 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-8992 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 14 Feb 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-2020-8992 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Canonical Ubuntu 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-2020-8992/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-8992/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-8992
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-8992
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-8992

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-8992/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.