No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2020-36254

Q: Is CVE-2020-36254 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2020-36254 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 1.9% on 2026-10-23, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

Q: What is the CVSS score for CVE-2020-36254?

CVE-2020-36254 has a CVSS v3 base score of 8.1 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

Published2021-02-25
Fixed in2020.79

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

scp.c in Dropbear before 2020.79 mishandles the filename of . or an empty filename, a related issue to CVE-2018-20685.

Timeline

dates in UTC

2021-02-2509:15CVE 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-2020-36254?format=txt
CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-36254?format=csv
TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD

Dropbear ssh project dropbear ssh

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
2020.79	< 2020.79	2020.79	NVD

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

Fix

Update Dropbear ssh project dropbear ssh to 2020.79

Advisories and patches

github.comPatch

Detection

Nuclei template: none so far
Exploit-DB: no entry
Proof-of-concept repositories: none listed

Sources

CISA-ADPSSVC decisionnone2025-12-03
OpenCVESSVC decisionnone—
CISA-ADPCVSS 3.18.12025-12-03
NVDCVSS 3.18.1read 2026-10-23
NVDCVSS 2.06.8read 2026-10-23
FIRST EPSSEPSS score1.9 %2026-10-23

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published: 2021-02-25
Last Modified: 2026-06-17
NVD status: Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-36254?

scp.c in Dropbear before 2020.79 mishandles the filename of . or an empty filename, a related issue to CVE-2018-20685.

Is CVE-2020-36254 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2020-36254 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 1.9% on 2026-10-23, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2020-36254?

CVE-2020-36254 has a CVSS v3 base score of 8.1 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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