CVE-2020-25016 — rgb
CRITICALCVE-2020-25016 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.1) Buffer Overflow vulnerability in rgb. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for rgb — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Out of bounds access in rgb
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2020-25016 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 385,738 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
rgbReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Affected versions of rgb crate allow viewing and modifying data of any type T wrapped in RGB<T> as bytes, and do not correctly constrain RGB<T> and other wrapper structures to the types for which it is safe to do so.
Safety violation possible for a type wrapped in RGB<T> and similar wrapper structures:
- If T contains padding, viewing it as bytes may lead to exposure of contents of uninitialized memory.
- If T contains a pointer, modifying it as bytes may lead to dereferencing of arbitrary pointers.
- Any safety and/or validity invariants for T may be violated.
The issue was resolved by requiring all types wrapped in structures provided by RGB crate to implement an unsafe marker trait.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | rgb | ≥ 0.5.4&&< 0.8.20 | 0.8.20cargo update -p rgb --precise 0.8.20 |
Affected Products
rgb-rustrgb-rust_projectResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for rgb, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update rgb to 0.8.20 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-25016 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Constrain what reaches the vulnerable code: limit the size and shape of untrusted input, isolate the affected component in a sandboxed or least-privileged process, and enable the platform's memory-safety mitigations (ASLR, stack protector, hardened allocator) so an out-of-bounds access is more likely to fail closed than to be exploitable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2020-25016 in your dependencies?
Find it across crates.io, including transitive dependencies.