Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This flaw can crash affected Rust applications that use the time crate on Unix-like systems. It requires a narrow threading condition involving environment variable changes, so it is not broadly trivial. The business impact is availability: a vulnerable service could unexpectedly terminate.
Executive priority
Treat as a moderate availability risk. Patch during the next dependency maintenance cycle, sooner for internet-facing or operationally critical Unix services using the affected crate paths.
Technical view
time-rs time versions 0.2.7 through before 0.2.23 may dereference a dangling pointer on Unix-like systems. The vulnerable paths are local offset and local time functions, including UtcOffset and OffsetDateTime local APIs. Windows and wasm are listed as unaffected.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to Rust applications depending on time >=0.2.7 and <0.2.23 on Unix-like operating systems, especially where affected local-time APIs run while another thread mutates environment variables.
Exploitation context
The bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or cited active exploitation. The CVSS vector rates availability impact high but attack complexity high, with privileges required and no user interaction.
Researcher notes
The advisory ties exploitation to concurrent environment mutation and affected local time APIs. Evidence supports a denial-of-service style crash risk, not confidentiality or integrity compromise. No exploit status beyond the provided references is established.
Mitigation direction
- Upgrade the time crate to version 0.2.23 or later.
- Review vendor advisory GHSA-wcg3-cvx6-7396 before selecting remediation.
- Refresh dependency lockfiles so transitive time dependencies resolve to a fixed version.
- Prioritize services where process crashes affect public availability.
Validation and detection
- Inspect dependency manifests and lockfiles for time versions >=0.2.7 and <0.2.23.
- Confirm vulnerable services run on Unix-like targets, not Windows or wasm.
- Search code for affected local offset and local time API usage.
- Check whether application threads can mutate environment variables at runtime.
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
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ATT&CK lookup starting points
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CWE-476: Exact CWE lookup
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Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2020-26235 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
- Medium
- CVSS
- 5.3 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
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 vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H1.63.6Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
5.3MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://github.com/time-rs/time/security/advisories/GHSA-wcg3-cvx6-7396CVE reference · x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/time-rs/time/issues/293CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://crates.io/crates/time/0.2.23CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
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.
NULL Pointer Dereference
NULL Pointer Dereference represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.