Medium
Security advisory
An issue was discovered in dbus >= 1.3.0 before 1.12.18. The DBusServer in libdbus, as used in dbus-daemon, leaks file descriptors when a message exceeds the per-message file descriptor limit. A local attacker with access to the D-Bus system bus or another system service's private AF_UNIX socket could use this to make the system service reach its file descriptor limit, denying service to subsequent D-Bus clients.
- Products
- Not specified
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- Not specified
- CVEs
- CVE-2020-12049
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 31 Oct 2026, 10:43 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
An issue was discovered in dbus >= 1.3.0 before 1.12.18. The DBusServer in libdbus, as used in dbus-daemon, leaks file descriptors when a message exceeds the per-message file descriptor limit. A local attacker with access to the D-Bus system bus or another system service's private AF_UNIX socket could use this to make the system service reach its file descriptor limit, denying service to subsequent D-Bus clients.
osv:CVE-2020-12049
Complete source record
{
"id": "3a659172c0569acabcb0f7e8b41d586fc9e533ae0e8845af1b5b6c8683989cde",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-12049",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "CVE-2020-12049",
"summary": "An issue was discovered in dbus >= 1.3.0 before 1.12.18. The DBusServer in libdbus, as used in dbus-daemon, leaks file descriptors when a message exceeds the per-message file descriptor limit. A local attacker with access to the D-Bus system bus or another system service's private AF_UNIX socket could use this to make the system service reach its file descriptor limit, denying service to subsequent D-Bus clients.",
"evidence": "osv:CVE-2020-12049",
"products": [],
"severity": "medium",
"structured": {
"id": "CVE-2020-12049",
"aliases": [
"CVE-2020-12049"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"repo": "https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/dbus/dbus",
"type": "GIT",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "acf0eb52ad7ca4d1af9a54c67973f142e96d2764"
},
{
"fixed": "a0926ef86f413f18202ffa19cb1433b6ba00ac36"
}
],
"database_specific": {
"extracted_events": [
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:freedesktop:dbus:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "1.3.0"
},
{
"fixed": "1.12.18"
}
],
"source": "CPE_RANGE"
}
]
}
}
],
"versions": [
"dbus-1.12.16",
"dbus-1.12.14",
"dbus-1.12.12",
"dbus-1.12.10",
"dbus-1.12.8",
"dbus-1.12.6",
"dbus-1.12.4",
"dbus-1.12.2",
"dbus-1.12.0",
"dbus-1.11.22",
"dbus-1.11.20",
"dbus-1.11.18",
"dbus-1.11.16",
"dbus-1.11.14",
"dbus-1.11.12",
"dbus-1.11.10",
"dbus-1.11.8",
"dbus-1.11.6",
"dbus-1.11.4",
"dbus-1.11.2",
"dbus-1.11.0",
"dbus-1.10.0",
"dbus-1.9.20",
"dbus-1.9.18",
"dbus-1.9.16",
"dbus-1.9.14",
"dbus-1.9.12",
"dbus-1.9.10",
"dbus-1.9.8",
"dbus-1.9.4",
"dbus-1.9.2",
"dbus-1.9.0",
"dbus-1.8.0",
"dbus-1.7.10",
"dbus-1.7.8",
"dbus-1.7.6",
"dbus-1.7.4",
"dbus-1.7.2",
"dbus-1.7.0",
"dbus-1.6.0",
"dbus-1.5.12",
"dbus-1.5.10",
"dbus-1.5.8",
"dbus-1.5.6",
"dbus-1.5.4",
"dbus-1.5.2",
"dbus-1.5.0",
"dbus-1.4.6",
"dbus-1.4.4",
"dbus-1.4.1",
"dbus-1.4.0",
"dbus-1.3.1",
"dbus-1.3.0"
],
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2020-12049.json"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-20T10:51:25.603876828Z",
"provider": "osv",
"references": [
"https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/dbus/dbus/-/tags/dbus-1.10.30",
"https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/dbus/dbus/-/tags/dbus-1.12.18",
"https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/dbus/dbus/-/tags/dbus-1.13.16",
"https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202007-46",
"https://usn.ubuntu.com/4398-1/",
"https://usn.ubuntu.com/4398-2/",
"https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/dbus/dbus/-/issues/294",
"https://securitylab.github.com/advisories/GHSL-2020-057-DBus-DoS-file-descriptor-leak"
],
"provider_metadata": {
"unresolved_ranges": [
{
"cpes": [
"cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:12.04:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:*",
"cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*",
"cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*",
"cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:19.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*"
],
"vendor_product": "canonical:ubuntu_linux",
"extracted_events": [
{
"range": [
{
"introduced": "12.04"
},
{
"last_affected": "12.04"
},
{
"introduced": "14.04"
},
{
"last_affected": "14.04"
},
{
"introduced": "16.04"
},
{
"last_affected": "16.04"
},
{
"introduced": "18.04"
},
{
"last_affected": "18.04"
},
{
"introduced": "19.10"
},
{
"last_affected": "19.10"
},
{
"introduced": "20.04"
},
{
"last_affected": "20.04"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
}
]
}
]
}
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2020-12049",
"evidence": "/id"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 382553,
"published_at": "2020-06-08T17:15:09.91+00:00"
}