CVE-2019-20172 — Kernel/VM/MemoryManager.cpp in SerenityOS before 2019-12-30 does not reject syscalls with pointers into the kernel-only virtual address space, which allows local users to gain privileges by overwriting a return address that was found on the kernel stack

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HIGH

Kernel/VM/MemoryManager.cpp in SerenityOS before 2019-12-30 does not reject syscalls with pointers into the kernel-only virtual address space, which allows local users to gain privileges by overwriting a return address that was found on the kernel stack

Published Dec 31, 2019

7.8

HIGH

CVSS 3.1

EPSS 0.47%

Description

Kernel/VM/MemoryManager.cpp in SerenityOS before 2019-12-30 does not reject syscalls with pointers into the kernel-only virtual address space, which allows local users to gain privileges by overwriting a return address that was found on the kernel stack.

Affected products

Remediation

No remediation recorded yet.

Metrics

0.47% 0.00475

Estimated probability of exploitation in the wild in the next 30 days (FIRST EPSS). As of Oct 1, 2026.

EPSS probability 0.00475

Score over time

2021–2026

EPSS v1
EPSS v5
EPSS v2
EPSS v3

Percentile over time

EPSS v1
EPSS v5
EPSS v2
EPSS v3

Table of values (8 key points)

Flat stretches are collapsed; showing up to 120 newest points.

Date	Score	Percentile	Model
Oct 1, 2026	0.47% (0.00475)	38.76th	v5 (v2026.06.15)
Sep 20, 2026	0.47% (0.00475)	40.21th	v5 (v2026.06.15)
Jul 20, 2024	0.04% (0.00042)	5.06th	v3 (v2023.03.01)
Mar 7, 2023	0.04% (0.00042)	5.63th	v3 (v2023.03.01)
Mar 6, 2023	0.89% (0.00885)	27.89th	v2 (v2022.01.01)
Jan 6, 2022	1.47% (0.01474)	32.51th	v1
Jan 5, 2022	0.33% (0.00332)	7.00th	v5 (v2026.06.15)
Apr 14, 2021	0.33% (0.00332)	0.00th	v1

Weaknesses (1)

CWE-119

Buffer Overflow

References (2)

https://github.com/Fire30/CTF-WRITEUPS/tree/master/36c3_ctf/wisdom
x_refsource_MISCExploitThird Party Advisory
https://github.com/SerenityOS/serenity/commit/0fc24fe2564736689859e7edfa177a86dac36bf9
x_refsource_MISCPatchThird Party Advisory

Link	Providers	Tags
https://github.com/Fire30/CTF-WRITEUPS/tree/master/36c3_ctf/wisdom		x_refsource_MISCExploitThird Party Advisory
https://github.com/SerenityOS/serenity/commit/0fc24fe2564736689859e7edfa177a86dac36bf9		x_refsource_MISCPatchThird Party Advisory

Change history (0)

No recorded changes yet.

Sources

CVE.org / MITRE

Status PUBLISHED

Assigner mitre

Published Dec 31, 2019

Updated Aug 5, 2024

Reserved Dec 31, 2019

Link CVE-2019-20172

CISA Vulnrichment

Updated n/a

NVD

Status Modified

Modified Jun 17, 2026

Link CVE-2019-20172

Red Hat

Severity n/a

Public date n/a

Links CVE-2019-20172