CVE-2020-1597 — Microsoft.AspNetCore.App
HIGHCVE-2020-1597 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) vulnerability in Microsoft.AspNetCore.App. A fix is available for Microsoft.AspNetCore.App — see the affected versions and patch details below.
ASP.NET Core Denial of Service Vulnerability
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2020-1597 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,333 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
Microsoft.AspNetCore.App.NETMicrosoft.AspNetCore.All.NETMicrosoft.AspNetCore.App.Runtime.linux-arm.NETMicrosoft.AspNetCore.App.Runtime.linux-arm64.NETMicrosoft.AspNetCore.App.Runtime.linux-musl-arm64.NETMicrosoft.AspNetCore.App.Runtime.linux-musl-x64.NETMicrosoft.AspNetCore.App.Runtime.linux-x64.NETMicrosoft.AspNetCore.App.Runtime.osx-x64+4 moreReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects NuGet packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
A denial of service vulnerability exists when ASP.NET Core improperly handles web requests. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could cause a denial of service against an ASP.NET Core web application. The vulnerability can be exploited remotely, without authentication. A remote unauthenticated attacker could exploit this vulnerability by issuing specially crafted requests to the ASP.NET Core application. The update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how the ASP.NET Core web application handles web requests.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| .NETNuGet | Microsoft.AspNetCore.App | ≥ 2.1.0&&< 2.1.21 | 2.1.21dotnet add package Microsoft.AspNetCore.App --version 2.1.21 |
| .NETNuGet | Microsoft.AspNetCore.All | ≥ 2.1.0&&< 2.1.21 | 2.1.21dotnet add package Microsoft.AspNetCore.All --version 2.1.21 |
| .NETNuGet | Microsoft.AspNetCore.App.Runtime.linux-arm | ≥ 3.1.0&&< 3.1.7 | 3.1.7dotnet add package Microsoft.AspNetCore.App.Runtime.linux-arm --version 3.1.7 |
| .NETNuGet | Microsoft.AspNetCore.App.Runtime.linux-arm64 | ≥ 3.1.0&&< 3.1.7 | 3.1.7dotnet add package Microsoft.AspNetCore.App.Runtime.linux-arm64 --version 3.1.7 |
| .NETNuGet | Microsoft.AspNetCore.App.Runtime.linux-musl-arm64 | ≥ 3.1.0&&< 3.1.7 | 3.1.7dotnet add package Microsoft.AspNetCore.App.Runtime.linux-musl-arm64 --version 3.1.7 |
| .NETNuGet | Microsoft.AspNetCore.App.Runtime.linux-musl-x64 | ≥ 3.1.0&&< 3.1.7 | 3.1.7dotnet add package Microsoft.AspNetCore.App.Runtime.linux-musl-x64 --version 3.1.7 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for Microsoft.AspNetCore.App, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update Microsoft.AspNetCore.App to 2.1.21 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-1597 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2020-1597 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2020-1597. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| .NET Core on Red Hat Enterprise Linux | rh-dotnet31-dotnet-0:3.1.107-1.el7 | RHSA-2020:3421 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | dotnet3.1-0:3.1.107-1.el8_2 | RHSA-2020:3422 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2020-1597 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2020-1597 across NuGet dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.