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Unrated severityNVD Advisory· Published Jul 29, 2020· Updated Aug 4, 2024

CVE-2020-14308

CVE-2020-14308

Description

Integer overflow in GRUB2 memory allocator before version 2.06 can lead to invalid memory allocations, potentially compromising system integrity, confidentiality, and availability during boot.

AI Insight

LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.

Integer overflow in GRUB2 memory allocator before version 2.06 can lead to invalid memory allocations, potentially compromising system integrity, confidentiality, and availability during boot.

Vulnerability

In GRUB2 versions before 2.06, the memory allocator does not check for arithmetic overflows when computing allocation sizes. This flaw allows an attacker to cause the allocator to return an invalid memory region, which can then be used to overwrite critical data structures. The vulnerability is reachable when GRUB processes crafted filesystem images or font files that trigger large allocation requests. [2]

Exploitation

An attacker with the ability to supply a malicious filesystem image or font file to GRUB (e.g., by modifying the boot configuration or having physical access) can trigger the integer overflow. By carefully crafting the input, the attacker can cause the allocator to return a pointer to an unintended memory area, leading to subsequent corruption.

Impact

Successful exploitation can result in arbitrary code execution within the GRUB environment, bypassing UEFI Secure Boot restrictions. This compromises the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of the boot process, potentially allowing the attacker to gain control over the system before the operating system loads.

Mitigation

The vulnerability is fixed in GRUB2 version 2.06. Users should update to this version or apply the relevant patches from their distribution. For Ubuntu systems, the fix is included in USN-4432-1 [2]. No workaround is available; updating is the recommended action.

References
  1. USN-4432-1: GRUB 2 vulnerabilities | Ubuntu security notices | Ubuntu

AI Insight generated on May 27, 2026. Synthesized from this CVE's description and the cited reference URLs; citations are validated against the source bundle.

Affected products

31

Patches

0

No patches discovered yet.

Vulnerability mechanics

No source-code context for this CVE — mechanics is only generated when we can read the actual fix diff. Without that, the four sections (root cause, attack vector, affected code, fix) would be speculation rather than analysis.

References

10

News mentions

0

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