How severe is CVE-2020-36472?

CVE-2020-36472 has a CVSS score of 5.9/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2020-36472?

CVE-2020-36472 affects the following packages: max7301 (crates.io). Ecosystems affected: crates.io.

How do I fix CVE-2020-36472?

Update max7301 to 0.2.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-36472 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2020-36472 in my crates.io dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for max7301. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.

How do I mitigate CVE-2020-36472 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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 does O3 Security protect against CVE-2020-36472?

O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2020-36472 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is CVE-2020-36472 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 1 known exploit references for CVE-2020-36472, including 1 in-the-wild exploitation observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

When was CVE-2020-36472 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2020-36472 was published on August 25, 2021 and was last updated on November 8, 2023. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🦀

🦀 crates.io

Not in CISA KEV

MEDIUM severity

CVE-2020-36472

MEDIUMFix: edarc/max7301@0a1da87

CVE-2020-36472 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.9) vulnerability in max7301. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2020-36472 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.

Data races in max7301

Also known asRUSTSEC-2020-0152

Published

Aug 25, 2021

Updated

Nov 8, 2023

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

1 known

Exploitation data as of Nov 8, 2023 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected

🦀max7301

Real-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

The ImmediateIO and TransactionalIO types implement Sync for all contained Expander<EI> types regardless of if the Expander itself is safe to use across threads.

As the IO types allow retrieving the Expander, this can lead to non-thread safe types being sent across threads as part of the Expander leading to data races.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🦀crates.io	`max7301`	all versions	0.2.0

Exploits & PoCs

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

An issue was discovered in the max7301 crate before 0.2.0 for Rust. The …

rustsec.orgNVDAug 2021

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for max7301. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update max7301 to 0.2.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-36472 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 pinpoints whether CVE-2020-36472 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Tailored to CVE-2020-36472. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

The `ImmediateIO` and `TransactionalIO` types implement `Sync` for all contained `Expander<EI>` types regardless of if the `Expander` itself is safe to use across threads. As the `IO` types allow retrieving the `Expander`, this can lead to non-thread safe types being sent across threads as part of the `Expander` leading to data races.

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2020-36472 in your dependencies?

O3 detects CVE-2020-36472 across crates.io dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works