xawtv — security advisory
An issue was discovered in LinuxTV xawtv before 3.107. The function dev_open() in v4l-conf.c does not perform sufficient checks to prevent an unprivileged caller of the program from opening unintended filesystem paths. This allows a local attacker with access to the v4l-conf setuid-root program to test for the existence of arbitrary files and to trigger an open on arbitrary files with mode O_RDWR. To achieve this, relative path components need to be added to the device path, as demonstrated by a v4l-conf -c /dev/../root/.bash_history command.
- Products
- xawtv
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- 3.107-1
- CVEs
- CVE-2020-13696
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 1 Nov 2026, 13:04 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
An issue was discovered in LinuxTV xawtv before 3.107. The function dev_open() in v4l-conf.c does not perform sufficient checks to prevent an unprivileged caller of the program from opening unintended filesystem paths. This allows a local attacker with access to the v4l-conf setuid-root program to test for the existence of arbitrary files and to trigger an open on arbitrary files with mode O_RDWR. To achieve this, relative path components need to be added to the device path, as demonstrated by a v4l-conf -c /dev/../root/.bash_history command.
osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2020-13696
xawtv
Fixed versions: 3.107-1
xawtv
Fixed versions: 3.107-1
xawtv
Fixed versions: 3.107-1
Complete source record
{
"id": "0f2ecda56ffc853218efad00d5a8d4b61fa727f1cef56cefc1053528470180b2",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-13696",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-13696",
"summary": "An issue was discovered in LinuxTV xawtv before 3.107. The function dev_open() in v4l-conf.c does not perform sufficient checks to prevent an unprivileged caller of the program from opening unintended filesystem paths. This allows a local attacker with access to the v4l-conf setuid-root program to test for the existence of arbitrary files and to trigger an open on arbitrary files with mode O_RDWR. To achieve this, relative path components need to be added to the device path, as demonstrated by a v4l-conf -c /dev/../root/.bash_history command.",
"evidence": "osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2020-13696",
"products": [
{
"name": {
"value": "xawtv",
"evidence": "/affected/0/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "3.107-1",
"evidence": "/affected/0/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
},
{
"name": {
"value": "xawtv",
"evidence": "/affected/1/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "3.107-1",
"evidence": "/affected/1/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
},
{
"name": {
"value": "xawtv",
"evidence": "/affected/2/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "3.107-1",
"evidence": "/affected/2/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
}
],
"severity": "medium",
"structured": {
"id": "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-13696",
"aliases": [
"DEBIAN-CVE-2020-13696"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "ECOSYSTEM",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "3.107-1"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "xawtv",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/xawtv?arch=source&distro=bookworm",
"ecosystem": "Debian:12"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-13696.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "not yet assigned"
}
},
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "ECOSYSTEM",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "3.107-1"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "xawtv",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/xawtv?arch=source&distro=trixie",
"ecosystem": "Debian:13"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-13696.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "not yet assigned"
}
},
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "ECOSYSTEM",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "3.107-1"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "xawtv",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/xawtv?arch=source&distro=forky",
"ecosystem": "Debian:14"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-13696.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "not yet assigned"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-26T12:01:35.007751417Z",
"provider": "osv",
"upstream": [
"CVE-2020-13696"
],
"references": [
"https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-13696"
]
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2020-13696",
"evidence": "/upstream"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 451727,
"published_at": "2020-06-08T17:15:10.16+00:00"
}