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CVE Record

CVE-2020-8285: curl 7.21.0 to and including 7.73.0 is vulnerable to uncontrolled recursion due to a stack overflow issue i...

curl 7.21.0 to and including 7.73.0 is vulnerable to uncontrolled recursion due to a stack overflow issue in FTP wildcard match parsing.

HighCVSS 7.5Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysishigh

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

This CVE can let a remote party crash vulnerable curl/libcurl-based FTP wildcard handling, creating a denial-of-service condition. The business impact is availability: jobs, integrations, scanners, or applications that rely on curl/libcurl for FTP wildcard transfers could fail until upgraded or the feature is avoided.

Executive priority

Treat as a high-priority availability risk when vulnerable curl/libcurl is used in automated FTP workflows or bundled products. It is less urgent for assets that do not use FTP wildcard matching, but broad libcurl embedding makes inventory important.

Technical view

CVE-2020-8285 affects libcurl 7.21.0 through 7.73.0. The issue is uncontrolled recursion in FTP wildcard match parsing, leading to stack overflow. CVSS 3.1 rates it 7.5 with network attack vector, no privileges, no user interaction, and high availability impact only.

Likely exposure

Exposure is most likely where curl/libcurl is embedded in applications, scripts, package managers, appliances, or OS images and used with FTP wildcard matching. General curl installation alone is not enough evidence of practical exposure; validate version and feature usage.

Exploitation context

The supplied sources do not show CISA KEV listing or active exploitation. The CVSS vector indicates a network-reachable, low-complexity denial-of-service scenario without authentication or user interaction, but the source bundle does not provide evidence of weaponized exploitation.

Researcher notes

Focus validation on version range, libcurl consumers, and whether FTP wildcard parsing is reachable. The public bundle supports denial-of-service impact, not confidentiality or integrity impact, and does not substantiate active exploitation.

Mitigation direction

  • Upgrade curl/libcurl to a vendor-patched release outside 7.21.0 through 7.73.0.
  • Apply OS or appliance security updates from Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Apple, Oracle, or relevant vendors.
  • Avoid FTP wildcard matching in affected deployments until upgraded.
  • Check downstream products that bundle libcurl for vendor-specific fixes.
  • Prioritize internet-facing or automated FTP workflows first.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory curl and libcurl versions across hosts, containers, appliances, and application dependencies.
  • Identify workloads using FTP wildcard matching or libcurl wildcard options.
  • Confirm patched package versions through vendor advisories or package metadata.
  • Run regression tests for FTP transfer jobs after updating curl/libcurl.
  • Review SBOMs and container images for bundled vulnerable libcurl versions.
Prepared
Confidence
high
Sources
10

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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cwe · low confidence lookup

CWE-674: Exact CWE lookup

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cve · low confidence lookup

CVE-2020-8285 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
High
CVSS
7.5 (3.1)
Known Exploited
No
Published

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

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.

1CVSS vectors
0Timeline events
0ADP providers
20Source links

CVSS vector scores

1 official score

We 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.

ScoreVersionSeverityVectorExploitImpactSource
7.5CVSS 3.1HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H3.93.6Primary CVE score

Vulnerability scoring details

Base CVSS 3.1 score

7.5High
CVSS 3.1 vector shape for CVE-2020-8285Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector
NetworkAdjacentLocalPhysical
Attack Complexity
LowHigh
Privileges Required
NoneLowHigh
User Interaction
NoneRequired
Scope
ChangedUnchanged
Confidentiality Impact
HighLowNone
Integrity Impact
HighLowNone
Availability Impact
HighLowNone

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
n/ahttps://github.com/curl/curllibcurl 7.21.0 to and including 7.73.0Listed
Weakness

CWE details

CWE-674

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

CWE-674 · source CWE mapping

Uncontrolled Recursion

Uncontrolled Recursion represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.

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