{"id":"CVE-2020-12656","url":"https://www.cyber-defence.io/tools/cve/CVE-2020-12656","generatedAt":"2026-10-27T22:24:49.813Z","title":"gss_mech_free in net/sunrpc/auth_gss/gss_mech_switch.c in the rpcsec_gss_krb5 implementation in the Linux kernel through 5.6.10 lacks certain domain_release calls, leading to a memory leak.","description":"gss_mech_free in net/sunrpc/auth_gss/gss_mech_switch.c in the rpcsec_gss_krb5 implementation in the Linux kernel through 5.6.10 lacks certain domain_release calls, leading to a memory leak. Note: This was disputed with the assertion that the issue does not grant any access not already available. It is a problem that on unloading a specific kernel module some memory is leaked, but loading kernel modules is a privileged operation. A user could also write a kernel module to consume any amount of memory they like and load that replicating the effect of this bug","published":"2020-05-05T06:15:11.000Z","lastModified":"2026-06-17T02:52:05.000Z","status":"Modified","sourceIdentifier":"cve@mitre.org","cvss":{"version":"3.1","score":5.5,"severity":"MEDIUM","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"},"cwe":["CWE-401"],"affected":["linux/linux kernel","canonical/ubuntu linux","opensuse/leap"],"epss":{"score":0.00334,"percentile":0.26521,"date":"2026-10-26","history":[]},"kev":{"listed":false},"exploits":{"count":0,"verified":false,"firstPublished":null,"source":"Exploit-DB (https://gitlab.com/exploit-database/exploitdb)","entries":[]},"verdict":{"level":"low","text":"Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.33%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own."},"changes":[],"references":[{"url":"http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-06/msg00022.html","tags":["Mailing List","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-07/msg00008.html","tags":["Mailing List","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=206651","tags":["Issue Tracking","Vendor Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://usn.ubuntu.com/4483-1/","tags":["Third Party Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"https://usn.ubuntu.com/4485-1/","tags":["Third Party Advisory"],"source":"cve@mitre.org"},{"url":"http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-06/msg00022.html","tags":["Mailing List","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-07/msg00008.html","tags":["Mailing List","Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=206651","tags":["Issue Tracking","Vendor Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://usn.ubuntu.com/4483-1/","tags":["Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://usn.ubuntu.com/4485-1/","tags":["Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"}],"sources":{"nvd":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-12656","epss":"https://www.first.org/epss/","kev":"https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","exploitdb":"https://www.exploit-db.com/"},"licence":"CC BY 4.0 — link back to the CVE Explorer if you publish the results; upstream data remains subject to its own terms."}