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rclone — security advisory

Type: advisorySources: OSVAdvisory ID: DEBIAN-CVE-2020-28924

An issue was discovered in Rclone before 1.53.3. Due to the use of a weak random number generator, the password generator has been producing weak passwords with much less entropy than advertised. The suggested passwords depend deterministically on the time the second rclone was started. This limits the entropy of the passwords enormously. These passwords are often used in the crypt backend for encryption of data. It would be possible to make a dictionary of all possible passwords with about 38 million entries per password length. This would make decryption of secret material possible with a plausible amount of effort. NOTE: all passwords generated by affected versions should be changed.

Products
rclone
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
1.53.3-1
CVEs
CVE-2020-28924
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
1 Nov 2026, 13:21 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

DEBIAN-CVE-2020-28924

core-osv · Original source

Published 19 Nov 2020, 20:15 UTC

An issue was discovered in Rclone before 1.53.3. Due to the use of a weak random number generator, the password generator has been producing weak passwords with much less entropy than advertised. The suggested passwords depend deterministically on the time the second rclone was started. This limits the entropy of the passwords enormously. These passwords are often used in the crypt backend for encryption of data. It would be possible to make a dictionary of all possible passwords with about 38 million entries per password length. This would make decryption of secret material possible with a plausible amount of effort. NOTE: all passwords generated by affected versions should be changed.

osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2020-28924

rclone

Fixed versions: 1.53.3-1

rclone

Fixed versions: 1.53.3-1

Complete source record
{
  "id": "e5f142a76e3113dfdaa71344242c14999f6d1368cbcfc34e9c7e1051a3cf2c22",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-28924",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-28924",
    "summary": "An issue was discovered in Rclone before 1.53.3. Due to the use of a weak random number generator, the password generator has been producing weak passwords with much less entropy than advertised. The suggested passwords depend deterministically on the time the second rclone was started. This limits the entropy of the passwords enormously. These passwords are often used in the crypt backend for encryption of data. It would be possible to make a dictionary of all possible passwords with about 38 million entries per password length. This would make decryption of secret material possible with a plausible amount of effort. NOTE: all passwords generated by affected versions should be changed.",
    "evidence": "osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2020-28924",
    "products": [
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "rclone",
          "evidence": "/affected/0/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "1.53.3-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/0/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      },
      {
        "name": {
          "value": "rclone",
          "evidence": "/affected/1/package/name"
        },
        "prerequisites": [],
        "fixed_versions": [
          {
            "value": "1.53.3-1",
            "evidence": "/affected/1/ranges"
          }
        ],
        "affected_versions": []
      }
    ],
    "severity": "high",
    "structured": {
      "id": "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-28924",
      "aliases": [
        "DEBIAN-CVE-2020-28924"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "1.53.3-1"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "rclone",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/rclone?arch=source&distro=bookworm",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:12"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-28924.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "not yet assigned"
          }
        },
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "type": "ECOSYSTEM",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "1.53.3-1"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "package": {
            "name": "rclone",
            "purl": "pkg:deb/debian/rclone?arch=source&distro=trixie",
            "ecosystem": "Debian:13"
          },
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2020-28924.json"
          },
          "ecosystem_specific": {
            "urgency": "not yet assigned"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-26T12:02:24.699716621Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "upstream": [
        "CVE-2020-28924"
      ],
      "references": [
        "https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-28924"
      ]
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2020-28924",
        "evidence": "/upstream"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 452119,
  "published_at": "2020-11-19T20:15:12.983+00:00"
}