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No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2020-17438

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

  • Published2020-12-11
  • WeaknessCWE-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

An issue was discovered in uIP 1.0, as used in Contiki 3.0 and other products. The code that reassembles fragmented packets fails to properly validate the total length of an incoming packet specified in its IP header, as well as the fragmentation offset value specified in the IP header. By crafting a packet with specific values of the IP header length and the fragmentation offset, attackers can write into the .bss section of the program (past the statically allocated buffer that is used for storing the fragmented data) and cause a denial of service in uip_reass() in uip.c, or possibly execute arbitrary code on some target architectures.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2020-12-1123:15CVE publishedNVD
  2. 2026-10-2319:23EPSS crossed 10 %FIRST EPSS

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-2020-17438?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-17438?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD
Uip project uipversion to verify
BranchAffectedFixed in
1.0= 1.0no fix published

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

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.

Vendor advisories

  • ICSA-20-343-01 CISA8 known affected

    Multiple Embedded TCP/IP Stacks

    uIP (EOL): Version 1.0 and prior · uIP-Contiki-NG: Version 4.5 and prior · Nut/Net: Version 5.1 and prior · +5 more

Full record on NVD

Fix

  1. Vendor fix CISA ICSA-20-343-01 · 8 productsAdditional vendors affected by the reported vulnerabilities have also released security advisories related to their affected products. Those advisories are as follows:

Detection

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

Sources

  • NVDCVSS 3.19.8read 2026-10-23
  • NVDCVSS 2.07.5read 2026-10-23
  • NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-787read 2026-10-23
  • FIRST EPSSEPSS score19.3 %read 2026-10-23

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2020-12-11
Last Modified
2026-06-17
NVD status
Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-17438?

An issue was discovered in uIP 1.0, as used in Contiki 3.0 and other products. The code that reassembles fragmented packets fails to properly validate the total length of an incoming packet specified in its IP header, as well as the fragmentation offset value specified in the IP header. By crafting a packet with specific values of the IP header length and the fragmentation offset, attackers can write into the .bss section of the program (past the statically allocated buffer that is used for storing the fragmented data) and cause a denial of service in uip_reass() in uip.c, or possibly execute arbitrary code on some target architectures.

Is CVE-2020-17438 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2020-17438 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 19.3% on 2026-10-23, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2020-17438?

CVE-2020-17438 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (CRITICAL severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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Surveillance reads the versions in your stack — a domain, a lockfile or a list — checks each CVE against the ranges its sources publish, and alerts you when one you run is exploited or enters CISA KEV. A version it cannot read stays « version not verified ».

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