CVE-2020-5253

Privilege escalation in NetHack

CRITICAL
9.8
CVSS Score
Published: March 10, 2020 at 04:35 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 03:21 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorNetHack

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Severity
CRITICAL9.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.5%

Description

NetHack before version 3.6.0 allowed malicious use of escaping of characters in the configuration file (usually .nethackrc) which could be exploited. This bug is patched in NetHack 3.6.0.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 3.6.0
Affected range stops below 3.6.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-184CWE-269

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