bison — security advisory
GNU Bison before 3.7.1 has a use-after-free in _obstack_free in lib/obstack.c (called from gram_lex) when a '\0' byte is encountered. NOTE: there is a risk only if Bison is used with untrusted input, and the observed bug happens to cause unsafe behavior with a specific compiler/architecture. The bug report was intended to show that a crash may occur in Bison itself, not that a crash may occur in code that is generated by Bison.
- Products
- bison
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- 2:3.7.2+dfsg-1
- CVEs
- CVE-2020-24240
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 1 Nov 2026, 13:41 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
GNU Bison before 3.7.1 has a use-after-free in _obstack_free in lib/obstack.c (called from gram_lex) when a '\0' byte is encountered. NOTE: there is a risk only if Bison is used with untrusted input, and the observed bug happens to cause unsafe behavior with a specific compiler/architecture. The bug report was intended to show that a crash may occur in Bison itself, not that a crash may occur in code that is generated by Bison.
osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2020-24240
bison
Fixed versions: 2:3.7.2+dfsg-1
bison
Fixed versions: 2:3.7.2+dfsg-1
bison
Fixed versions: 2:3.7.2+dfsg-1
Complete source record
{
"id": "b19096d735d5f331e143003288a9eb8e7626999df8f86f206f6add6acdc08a63",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-24240",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-24240",
"summary": "GNU Bison before 3.7.1 has a use-after-free in _obstack_free in lib/obstack.c (called from gram_lex) when a '\\0' byte is encountered. NOTE: there is a risk only if Bison is used with untrusted input, and the observed bug happens to cause unsafe behavior with a specific compiler/architecture. The bug report was intended to show that a crash may occur in Bison itself, not that a crash may occur in code that is generated by Bison.",
"evidence": "osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2020-24240",
"products": [
{
"name": {
"value": "bison",
"evidence": "/affected/0/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "2:3.7.2+dfsg-1",
"evidence": "/affected/0/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
},
{
"name": {
"value": "bison",
"evidence": "/affected/1/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "2:3.7.2+dfsg-1",
"evidence": "/affected/1/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
},
{
"name": {
"value": "bison",
"evidence": "/affected/2/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "2:3.7.2+dfsg-1",
"evidence": "/affected/2/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
}
],
"severity": "medium",
"structured": {
"id": "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-24240",
"aliases": [
"DEBIAN-CVE-2020-24240"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "ECOSYSTEM",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "2:3.7.2+dfsg-1"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "bison",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/bison?arch=source&distro=bookworm",
"ecosystem": "Debian:12"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-24240.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "unimportant"
}
},
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "ECOSYSTEM",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "2:3.7.2+dfsg-1"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "bison",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/bison?arch=source&distro=trixie",
"ecosystem": "Debian:13"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-24240.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "unimportant"
}
},
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "ECOSYSTEM",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "2:3.7.2+dfsg-1"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "bison",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/bison?arch=source&distro=forky",
"ecosystem": "Debian:14"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-24240.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "unimportant"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-26T12:02:39.717572928Z",
"provider": "osv",
"upstream": [
"CVE-2020-24240"
],
"references": [
"https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-24240"
]
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2020-24240",
"evidence": "/upstream"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 452674,
"published_at": "2020-08-25T14:15:16.543+00:00"
}