MediumCVE-2020-12801

Crash-recovered MSOffice encrypted documents defaulted to not to using encryption on next save (CVE-2020-12801)

Published 18.05.2020Sources: CVE.org

What is affected, what to do

If LibreOffice has an encrypted document open and crashes, that document is auto-saved encrypted. On restart, LibreOffice offers to restore the document and prompts for the password to decrypt it.

Update The Document Foundation LibreOffice to version 6.3.6, The Document Foundation LibreOffice to version 6.4.3.

Affected: The Document Foundation LibreOffice lt 6-3 series..6.3.6
The Document Foundation LibreOffice lt 6-4 series..6.4.3
Fixed in: The Document Foundation LibreOffice 6.3.6
The Document Foundation LibreOffice 6.4.3

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Metrics

5.3

Priority

XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

Source: NVD, CVSS v3

5.3

CVSS v3

Severity Medium on the scale from 0 to 10.

Source: CVE.org

1.3 %

EPSS score

Moderate — model estimates 1-10% exploitation likelihood.

Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 70.2

Show all metrics

Severity: Medium
Priority (0–325) The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first? Read in glossary: 65.92 Methodology
Exploit maturity An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack. Read in glossary: no public PoC known
XIEM Effective CVSS XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command. Read in glossary: 5.3 Methodology
CVSS v3 CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions. Read in glossary: 5.3
EPSS score The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“. Read in glossary: 1.3 %; Moderate — model estimates 1-10% exploitation likelihood.
EPSS percentile The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking. Read in glossary: 70.2; High — this CVE ranks above the median of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 36%).
KEV status The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching. Read in glossary: —
Published: 18.05.2020
CISA assessment (SSVC): Exploitation: none known · automatable · Technical impact: partial; Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 10 January 2024
CWE CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect. Read in glossary: CWE-311

Detection rules

No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

Classification under NIS2 and CRA

Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

NIS2 NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management. Read in glossary: Handle the vulnerability in regular vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2.
CRA The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates. Read in glossary: From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
ISO/IEC 27001 ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security. Read in glossary: Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

Description

If LibreOffice has an encrypted document open and crashes, that document is auto-saved encrypted. On restart, LibreOffice offers to restore the document and prompts for the password to decrypt it. If the recovery is successful, and if the file format of the recovered document was not LibreOffice's default ODF file format, then affected versions of LibreOffice default that subsequent saves of the document are unencrypted. This may lead to a user accidentally saving a MSOffice file format document unencrypted while believing it to be encrypted. This issue affects: LibreOffice 6-3 series versions prior to 6.3.6; 6-4 series versions prior to 6.4.3.

Source: NVD (NIST), cvelistv5

Affected products

The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

Affected products
		Affected versions	Fixed in
The Document Foundation	LibreOffice	`6-4 series – < 6.4.3` `6-3 series – < 6.3.6`	`6.4.3` `6.3.6`
libreoffice	libreoffice	`6.3.0 – < 6.3.6` `6.4.0 – < 6.4.3`	`6.3.6` `6.4.3`

Vendors and products

Affected operating systems

Affected operating systems

Linux	opensuse	leap	`15.1`

Weakness classes (CWE)

CWE-311Missing Encryption of Sensitive Data
Class
The product does not encrypt sensitive or critical information before storage or transmission.
Entry at MITRE CWE-311

References & sources

libreoffice.orgabout-us/security/advisories/CVE-2020-12801Vendor advisory
lists.opensuse.orgopenSUSE-SU-2020:0786Vendor advisory, Mailing list, Third-party advisory
lists.debian.org[debian-lts-announce] 20231231 [SECURITY] [DLA 3703-1] libreoffice security updateMailing list

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<a href="https://intel.neosec.eu/en/cve/CVE-2020-12801"><img src="https://intel.neosec.eu/badge/cve/CVE-2020-12801.svg?lang=en" alt="CVE-2020-12801 – NEOSEC Intel" height="20"></a>