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CISA KEV · ACTIVELY EXPLOITED
MEDIUM severity

CVE-2020-27950

MEDIUM

CVE-2020-27950 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.5) CWE-665 vulnerability. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.

A memory initialization issue was addressed. This issue is fixed in macOS Big Sur 11.0.1, watchOS 7.1, iOS 12.4.9, watchOS 6.2.9, Security Update 2020-006 High Sierra, Security Update…

Published
Updated
Affected
4 products
Patched
See advisory
Exploits
6 known
Exploitation data as of Oct 22, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, CISA KEV, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

Actively exploited in the wild

  • Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-11-03. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-05-03.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2020-27950.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
16.5%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Moderate Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs97th percentile — riskier than 97% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
8.17%23.0%37.9%52.7%37.1%16.5%Apr 26Aug 26Oct 26

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2020-27950 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 10–50% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Description

A memory initialization issue was addressed. This issue is fixed in macOS Big Sur 11.0.1, watchOS 7.1, iOS 12.4.9, watchOS 6.2.9, Security Update 2020-006 High Sierra, Security Update 2020-006 Mojave, iOS 14.2 and iPadOS 14.2, watchOS 5.3.9, macOS Catalina 10.15.7 Supplemental Update, macOS Catalina 10.15.7 Update. A malicious application may be able to disclose kernel memory.

Affected Products

4 products · 8 configurations
OS
ipadosapple
< 14.2
range
OS
iphone osapple
≥ 14.0 && < 14.2
range
OS
macosapple
≥ 11.0 && < 11.0.1
range
OS
watchosapple
≥ 7.0 && < 7.1
range
Exploits & PoCs
6

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

A memory initialization issue was addressed. This issue is fixed in macO…

support.apple.comGoogle-sheetOct 2020

A memory initialization issue was addressed. This issue is fixed in macO…

github.comGithubDec 2020

A memory initialization issue was addressed. This issue is fixed in macO…

cisa.govCISAJul 2021

A memory initialization issue was addressed. This issue is fixed in macO…

github.comGithubSep 2024

Detection & mitigation playbook

Vulnerability

  1. Detect

    Identify every host running the affected component and compare the installed build against the fixed version below — for source-built or distro-packaged software the version string, not a lockfile, is the source of truth (`dpkg -l`, `rpm -q`, or the binary's own `--version`).

  2. Remediation status

    No fixed release is recorded for CVE-2020-27950 yet. Track the upstream advisory, and apply the exposure-reduction steps below in the meantime.

  3. Mitigate without a patch

    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.

Frequently Asked Questions

A memory initialization issue was addressed. This issue is fixed in macOS Big Sur 11.0.1, watchOS 7.1, iOS 12.4.9, watchOS 6.2.9, Security Update 2020-006 High Sierra, Security Update 2020-006 Mojave, iOS 14.2 and iPadOS 14.2, watchOS 5.3.9, macOS Catalina 10.15.7 Supplemental Update, macOS Catalina 10.15.7 Update. A malicious application may be able to disclose kernel memory.
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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CVE-2020-27950: Improper Initialization (Medium 5.5, KEV)