CVE-2020-36432 — alg_ds
CRITICALCVE-2020-36432 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-908 vulnerability in alg_ds. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Use of Uninitialized Resource in alg_ds
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2020-36432 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 385,386 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
alg_dsReal-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
An issue was discovered in the alg_ds crate through 2020-08-25 for Rust. Matrix::new() internally calls Matrix::fill_with() which uses *ptr = value pattern to initialize the buffer. This pattern assumes that there is an initialized struct at the address and drops it, which results in dropping of uninitialized struct.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | alg_ds | all versions | No fix |
Affected Products
alg dsalg_ds_projectDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for alg_ds, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of alg_ds has shipped for CVE-2020-36432 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
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
Is CVE-2020-36432 in your dependencies?
Find it across crates.io, including transitive dependencies.