Vulnerabilities / CVE-2020-5212

critical

CVE-2020-5212

In NetHack before 3.6.5, an extremely long value for the MENUCOLOR con ...

Published Modified CWE 120
In the Trivy database since at least 24 Oct 2026, 07:11 UTCWhen it arrived before that build is not recorded.

Severity by source

NVD9.8CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Trivy's own label is CRITICAL. Rated critical by NVD. Rated lower by Ubuntu (low).

Description

In NetHack before 3.6.5, an extremely long value for the MENUCOLOR configuration file option can cause a buffer overflow resulting in a crash or remote code execution/privilege escalation. This vulnerability affects systems that have NetHack installed suid/sgid and shared systems that allow users to upload their own configuration files. Users should upgrade to NetHack 3.6.5.

Affected packages and fixed versions

SourcePackageFixed in
debian 11nethack3.6.6-1
debian 12nethack3.6.6-1
debian 13nethack3.6.6-1
debian 14nethack3.6.6-1
echonethack3.6.6-1
ubuntu 18.04-ESMnethackno fix listed
ubuntu 20.04-ESMnethackno fix listed

References

Vulnerability data compiled from the Trivy vulnerability database (trivy-db, Aqua Security, Apache License 2.0), which aggregates third-party advisories. CVE records are published by The MITRE Corporation under the CVE Terms of Use; CVE is a trademark of MITRE. This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Severity, titles and advisory data from the GitHub Advisory Database (CC BY 4.0), Red Hat security data (CC BY 4.0) and the other sources linked on each entry. Entries may be summarised or re-formatted; the linked original is the authoritative record.