Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2020-36455 concerns the Rust slock crate through 2020-11-17. The issue is that Slock<T> declares all wrapped values safe to send and share across threads, regardless of whether the wrapped type is actually thread-safe. This can undermine Rust’s safety guarantees in applications using the crate.
Executive priority
Prioritize as a targeted dependency review for Rust applications, especially systems using concurrent code. Business urgency is uncertain because the public record lacks severity scoring and exploit evidence.
Technical view
The cited description says Slock<T> unconditionally implements Send and Sync. In Rust terms, that is a thread-safety soundness issue because generic wrappers must preserve the safety constraints of T. The public bundle does not provide CVSS, CWE, affected version ranges beyond the date, exploit details, or a named fixed version.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely limited to Rust projects that directly or transitively depend on the slock crate versions available through 2020-11-17. The bundle does not identify downstream products, package versions, or CPEs.
Exploitation context
The provided sources do not state active exploitation, public exploit availability, or inclusion in CISA KEV. Treat this as a dependency soundness risk requiring inventory and code-context review, not as confirmed internet-exploited activity.
Researcher notes
The key research question is whether local usage wraps types that should not be Send or Sync and then crosses thread boundaries. Evidence is limited to the RustSec/CVE description; no fixed release, exploit primitive, or impact scenario is provided in the bundle.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory Cargo.toml and Cargo.lock for slock usage.
- Check RustSec and crate maintainer guidance for a safe version or replacement.
- Upgrade, remove, or replace slock according to vendor guidance.
- Avoid sharing Slock-wrapped non-thread-safe types across threads until resolved.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether slock appears as a direct or transitive Rust dependency.
- Map any detected dependency to versions published through 2020-11-17.
- Review code paths using Slock<T> with cross-thread behavior.
- Record compensating controls if upgrade or removal is delayed.
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
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CVE-2020-36455 mapping review
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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://rustsec.org/advisories/RUSTSEC-2020-0135.htmlCVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rustsec/advisory-db/main/crates/slock/RUSTSEC-2020-0135.mdCVE 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.