CVE-2020-36461 — noise_search
HIGHCVE-2020-36461 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.1) CWE-77 vulnerability in noise_search. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Data races in noise_search
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2020-36461 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
noise_searchReal-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 the noise_search crate unconditionally implement Send/Sync for MvccRwLock.
This can lead to data races when types that are either !Send or !Sync (e.g. Rc<T>, Arc<Cell<_>>) are contained inside MvccRwLock and sent across thread boundaries. The data races can potentially lead to memory corruption (as demonstrated in the PoC from the original report issue).
Also, safe APIs of MvccRwLock allow aliasing violations by allowing &T and LockResult<MutexGuard<Box<T>>> to co-exist in conflicting lifetime regions. The APIs of MvccRwLock should either be marked as unsafe or MbccRwLock should be changed to private or pub(crate).
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | noise_search | all versions | No fix |
Affected Products
noise searchnoise_search_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 noise_search, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of noise_search has shipped for CVE-2020-36461 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
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-2020-36461 in your dependencies?
Find it across crates.io, including transitive dependencies.