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No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2020-15229

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

  • Published2020-10-14
  • WeaknessCWE-22

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

Singularity (an open source container platform) from version 3.1.1 through 3.6.3 has a vulnerability. Due to insecure handling of path traversal and the lack of path sanitization within `unsquashfs`, it is possible to overwrite/create any files on the host filesystem during the extraction with a crafted squashfs filesystem. The extraction occurs automatically for unprivileged (either installation or with `allow setuid = no`) run of Singularity when a user attempt to run an image which is a local SIF image or a single file containing a squashfs filesystem and is coming from remote sources `library://` or `shub://`. Image build is also impacted in a more serious way as it can be used by a root user, allowing an attacker to overwrite/create files leading to a system compromise, so far bootstrap methods `library`, `shub` and `localimage` are triggering the squashfs extraction. This issue is addressed in Singularity 3.6.4. All users are advised to upgrade to 3.6.4 especially if they use Singularity mainly for building image as root user. There is no solid workaround except to temporary avoid to use unprivileged mode with single file images in favor of sandbox images instead. Regarding image build, temporary avoid to build from `library` and `shub` sources and as much as possible use `--fakeroot` or a VM for that.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2020-10-1419:15CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 21:37 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-15229?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-15229?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD
Opensuse leap
BranchAffectedFixed in
15.1= 15.1no fix published
15.2= 15.2no fix published
Opensuse backports sle
BranchAffectedFixed in
15.0= 15.0no fix published
Sylabs singularity
BranchAffectedFixed in
3.x≥ 3.1.1, ≤ 3.6.3no fix published

1 more product in the sources.

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Fix

Advisories and patches

Detection

Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
none listed
PoC-in-GitHub

Sources

  • CNACVSS 3.18.2read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 3.19.3read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 2.05.8read 2026-10-23
  • CNAweakness (CWE)CWE-22read 2026-10-23
  • FIRST EPSSEPSS score2.0 %2026-10-23
  • OSVaffected packages—

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
Published
2020-10-14
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-15229?

Singularity (an open source container platform) from version 3.1.1 through 3.6.3 has a vulnerability. Due to insecure handling of path traversal and the lack of path sanitization within `unsquashfs`, it is possible to overwrite/create any files on the host filesystem during the extraction with a crafted squashfs filesystem. The extraction occurs automatically for unprivileged (either installation or with `allow setuid = no`) run of Singularity when a user attempt to run an image which is a local SIF image or a single file containing a squashfs filesystem and is coming from remote sources `library://` or `shub://`. Image build is also impacted in a more serious way as it can be used by a root user, allowing an attacker to overwrite/create files leading to a system compromise, so far bootstrap methods `library`, `shub` and `localimage` are triggering the squashfs extraction. This issue is addressed in Singularity 3.6.4. All users are advised to upgrade to 3.6.4 especially if they use Singularity mainly for building image as root user. There is no solid workaround except to temporary avoid to use unprivileged mode with single file images in favor of sandbox images instead. Regarding image build, temporary avoid to build from `library` and `shub` sources and as much as possible use `--fakeroot` or a VM for that.

Is CVE-2020-15229 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2020-15229 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 2.0% on 2026-10-23, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2020-15229?

CVE-2020-15229 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.3 (CRITICAL severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N.

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