CVE-2020-16125 - CVE House
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Status published High CVE-2020-16125

gdm3 would start gnome-initial-setup if it cannot contact accountservice

Vulnerability Description

gdm3 versions before 3.36.2 or 3.38.2 would start gnome-initial-setup if gdm3 can't contact the accountservice service via dbus in a timely manner; on Ubuntu (and potentially derivatives) this could be be chained with an additional issue that could allow a local user to create a new privileged account.

Impact Analysis

Refer to official advisory for detailed impact metrics.

Remediation

Ensure systems are updated to the latest vendor-supplied patch levels.

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Credits & Attribution

The following person or organization is credited with identifying this vulnerability, as recorded in the NVD database:

  • Kevin Backhouse

References

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Affected Vendor

Affected Software

GDM3
Vulnerable Versions:
3.36, 3.38

Timeline

Official Publish: November 10th, 2020
Last Modified: September 17th, 2024
Added to House: July 21st, 2026

CVSS Vectors

V3: CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-754

MITRE ATT&CK TTPs

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application
Initial Access
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation
Privilege Escalation
T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service
Impact
T1562 Impair Defenses
Defense Evasion
T1005 Data from Local System
Collection