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CVE Record

CVE-2020-36316: In RELIC before 2021-04-03, there is a buffer overflow in PKCS#1 v1.5 signature verification because garbag...

In RELIC before 2021-04-03, there is a buffer overflow in PKCS#1 v1.5 signature verification because garbage bytes can be present.

UnknownCVSS not scoredNot KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysisunknown

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

This CVE concerns RELIC, a cryptographic toolkit. Older code before 2021-04-03 could overflow memory while verifying PKCS#1 v1.5 signatures. The public bundle does not provide severity, CVSS, exploit evidence, or affected product mapping, so urgency depends on whether RELIC is used in exposed signature-verification paths.

Executive priority

Prioritize discovery first. If RELIC is not present, business risk is low. If vulnerable RELIC verifies signatures from untrusted sources, treat remediation as time-sensitive because memory corruption in cryptographic verification can undermine service integrity or availability.

Technical view

CVE-2020-36316 describes a buffer overflow in RELIC before 2021-04-03 during PKCS#1 v1.5 signature verification because garbage bytes can be present. The bundle provides upstream GitHub references, including an issue and commit, but no CVSS, CWE, CPEs, exploitability details, or release naming beyond the date boundary.

Likely exposure

Exposure is likely limited to applications or services that embed or link RELIC versions before 2021-04-03 and perform PKCS#1 v1.5 signature verification. The bundle does not identify downstream vendors, distributions, or package names.

Exploitation context

The source bundle does not cite active exploitation, and KEV is false. It also does not provide proof-of-concept status, attack prerequisites, or remote/local exploitability. Treat this as unconfirmed exploit activity with potentially serious impact where vulnerable verification code is reachable.

Researcher notes

Evidence is sparse. The CVE record states the affected condition and date boundary, but lacks CVSS, CWE, CPEs, exploit details, and precise release identifiers. Analysis should focus on confirming RELIC usage, version provenance, and reachability of PKCS#1 v1.5 verification paths.

Mitigation direction

  • Inventory systems and repositories for RELIC or vendored relic-toolkit code.
  • Upgrade RELIC to code from 2021-04-03 or later, following upstream guidance.
  • Review the referenced upstream commit and issue for remediation context.
  • Prioritize services that verify external PKCS#1 v1.5 signatures.
  • Monitor vendor or distribution advisories for downstream package fixes.

Validation and detection

  • Confirm the deployed RELIC source or package predates 2021-04-03.
  • Identify whether PKCS#1 v1.5 signature verification is enabled or reachable.
  • Check build manifests for static or vendored RELIC copies.
  • Verify remediation against the referenced upstream commit or later RELIC code.
  • Document any downstream product dependency once confirmed.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
5

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

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

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CVE-2020-36316 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Unknown
CVSS
Not scored
Known Exploited
No
Published
Official CVE source material

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.

0CVSS vectors
0Timeline events
0ADP providers
5Source links

CVSS and timeline data

No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
n/an/an/aListed
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.