Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2020-18780 is a memory safety flaw in NASM 2.14.02. A specially crafted NASM invocation can crash the assembler, causing denial of service. The public bundle does not provide CVSS, confirmed affected product metadata, or a named fixed version.
Executive priority
Treat this as a targeted reliability risk for build infrastructure, not an internet-wide emergency. Prioritize review where NASM processes external submissions, package builds, or customer-controlled code artifacts.
Technical view
The issue is described as a use-after-free in function new_Token in asm/preproc.c in NASM 2.14.02. Impact is limited in the cited data to denial of service via crafted NASM command processing. No exploit code, patch details, or broader affected-version range is provided.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely in build systems, CI jobs, package builders, or developer workflows that run NASM 2.14.02 on untrusted or externally supplied assembly input.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or active exploitation evidence. The described outcome is a crash/denial of service, not code execution, based on the provided CVE description.
Researcher notes
Public evidence is sparse. The CVE states use-after-free in new_Token and denial of service, but does not provide CVSS, CWE, fixed release, or exact trigger detail in the supplied bundle.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory NASM versions in developer, CI, and build environments.
- Avoid processing untrusted assembly input with NASM 2.14.02.
- Check NASM project guidance for fixed or unaffected versions.
- Isolate assembler jobs that must process external input.
- Monitor build systems for repeated NASM crashes.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether NASM 2.14.02 is installed or packaged internally.
- Review CI and build workflows for NASM execution paths.
- Identify whether external users can influence NASM input files.
- Check logs for assembler crashes during preprocessing.
- Track the linked NASM Bugzilla issue for remediation details.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CVE-2020-18780 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Unknown
- CVSS
- Not scored
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS and timeline data
No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://bugzilla.nasm.us/show_bug.cgi?id=3392634CVE reference
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.