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ExploitedIn CISA KEVFix available

CVE-2020-15999

Exploitation confirmed. First attested on 2021-11-03 by CISA-ADP, CISA KEV, GCVE · kevintel.

  • Published2020-11-03
  • Fixed in2.10.4
  • WeaknessCWE-120 · CWE-787

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

Heap buffer overflow in Freetype in Google Chrome prior to 86.0.4240.111 allowed a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2020-11-0303:15CVE publishedNVD
  2. 2021-11-03Added to the CISA KEV catalogCISA KEV
  3. 2021-11-03Listed as exploited by GCVEGCVE
  4. 2021-11-03Exploitation first reportedCISA KEV
  5. 2025-02-0414:58SSVC exploitation set to activeCISA-ADP

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-11-04 03:37 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-2020-15999?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-15999?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD
Freetype
BranchAffectedFixed in
2.x≥ 2.6.0, < 2.10.42.10.4
Debian debian linux
BranchAffectedFixed in
10.0= 10.0no fix published
Fedoraproject fedora
BranchAffectedFixed in
31.x= 31no fix published

7 more products in the sources.

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

Products declared by the CNA1 product

As Chrome, the CNA that assigned this CVE, declared them in the CVE record; versions as written.

  • Google Chrome
    Affected
    • < 86.0.4240.111fixed in 86.0.4240.111custom

Source: the CNA record (CVE Program), © The MITRE Corporation,CVE Terms of UseCVE recordupdated 2024-01-15

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • androidUbuntu:16.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed
  • chromiumSUSE:Package Hub 15 SP2all versions · fixed in 86.0.4240.183-bp152.2.26.1
  • chromiumSUSE:Package Hub 15 SP1all versions · fixed in 86.0.4240.111-bp151.3.116.1
  • chromiumopenSUSE:Tumbleweedall versions · fixed in 113.0.5672.92-1.1
  • chromiumopenSUSE:Tumbleweedall versions · fixed in 93.0.4577.82-1.1
  • chromiumopenSUSE:Leap 15.2all versions · fixed in 86.0.4240.111-lp152.2.42.1
  • chromiumopenSUSE:Leap 15.1all versions · fixed in 86.0.4240.111-lp151.2.147.1
  • chromiumDebian:10all versions · fixed in 87.0.4280.88-0.4~deb10u1

152 more package ranges on OSV.dev

Vendor advisories

  • CVE-2020-15999 Red Hat Product Security162 products fixed

    freetype: Heap-based buffer overflow due to integer truncation in Load_SBit_Png

  • ICSA-23-264-05 CISA1 known affected

    Rockwell Automation Connected Components Workbench

    Connected Components Workbench: < R21

  • RHSA-2020:4951 Red Hat Product Security26 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: freetype security update

  • RHSA-2020:4952 Red Hat Product Security26 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: freetype security update

  • RHSA-2020:4950 Red Hat Product Security26 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: freetype security update

  • RHSA-2020:4949 Red Hat Product Security16 products fixed

    Red Hat Security Advisory: freetype security update

2 more advisories

Full record on NVD

Fix

  1. Update Freetype to 2.10.4
  2. CISA’s required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.due 2021-11-17
  3. Vendor fix CISA ICSA-23-264-05 · 1 productRockwell Automation recommends users to update Connected Components Workbench to R21 and later.
  4. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2020:4951 · 26 productsFor details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to: https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258 The X server must be restarted (log out, then log back in) for this update to take effect.
  5. Vendor fix Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2020:4351 · 14 productsFor details on how to apply this update, which includes the changes described in this advisory, refer to: https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258 After installing the update, Chromium must be restarted for the changes to take effect.
  6. Workaround from the vendor Red Hat Product Security RHSA-2020:4951 · 26 productsRed Hat has investigated whether a possible mitigation exists for this issue, and has not been able to identify a practical example. Please update as soon as possible.
  7. Mitigation from the vendor CISA ICSA-23-264-05 · 1 productCustomers using the affected software are encouraged to apply the risk mitigations, if possible.
  8. Mitigation from the vendor CISA ICSA-23-264-05 · 1 productAdditionally, Rockwell Automation encourages customers to implement their suggested security best practices to minimize the risk of vulnerability.

Advisories and patches

Detection

read 2026-11-03 22:42 UTC
Nuclei template
none so far
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
no entry
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
3 repositories, unverifiedoxfemale/CVE-2020-15999maarlo/CVE-2020-15999Marmeus/CVE-2020-15999
PoC-in-GitHub
Metasploit modules
none listed
Metasploit Framework

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerability

Date Added
2021-11-03
Patch Due Date
2021-11-17
Ransomware Use
Unknown
Required Action
Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2020-11-03
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Analyzed
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-pv36-h7jh-qm62

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-15999?

Heap buffer overflow in Freetype in Google Chrome prior to 86.0.4240.111 allowed a remote attacker to potentially exploit heap corruption via a crafted HTML page.

Is CVE-2020-15999 actively exploited?

Yes. CVE-2020-15999 is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, meaning it has been confirmed as actively exploited in the wild. CISA requires federal agencies to patch by 2021-11-17.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2020-15999?

CVE-2020-15999 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.6 (CRITICAL severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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