PCRE: Integer Overflow (CVE-2020-14155)
Published Last modified Sources: CVE.org, OSV
What is affected, what to do
libpcre in PCRE before 8.44 allows an integer overflow via a large number after a (?C substring.
Update PCRE to version 8.44, Apple macOS to version 11.0.1, GitLab to version 12.10.13.
- Affected
- PCRE
lt *..8.44 - Apple macOS
lt *..11.0.1 - GitLab
lt *..12.10.13 - GitLab
lt 13.0.0..13.0.8 - GitLab
lt 13.1.0..13.1.2 - Oracle Communications Cloud Native Core Policy
eq 1.15.0..1.15.0 - Splunk Universal Forwarder
lt 8.2.0..8.2.12 - Splunk Universal Forwarder
lt 9.0.0..9.0.6 - Splunk Universal Forwarder
eq 9.1.0..9.1.0
- PCRE
- Fixed in
- PCRE
8.44 - Apple macOS
11.0.1 - GitLab
12.10.13 - GitLab
13.0.8 - GitLab
13.1.2 - Splunk Universal Forwarder
8.2.12 - Splunk Universal Forwarder
9.0.6
- PCRE
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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, OSV
4.2 %
EPSS score
Moderate — model estimates 1-10% exploitation likelihood.
Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 90.9
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- 92.59 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- 4.2 %
- 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- 90.9
- Critical — this CVE ranks in the top fifth of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 80%).
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
- CISA assessment (SSVC)
- Exploitation: none known · automatable · Technical impact: partial
- Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 8 October 2026
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
libpcre in PCRE before 8.44 allows an integer overflow via a large number after a (?C substring.
Source: NVD (NIST), cvelistv5, OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affected products
The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.
| Affected versions | Fixed in | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| gitlab | gitlab |
|
|
| netapp | active_iq_unified_manager |
|
|
| netapp | cloud_backup |
|
|
| netapp | clustered_data_ontap |
|
|
| netapp | ontap_select_deploy_administration_utility |
|
|
| netapp | steelstore_cloud_integrated_storage |
|
|
| oracle | communications_cloud_native_core_policy |
|
|
| pcre | pcre |
|
|
| splunk | universal_forwarder |
|
|
Vendors and products
Affected operating systems
| macOS | apple | macos | — |
| Other | netapp | h300s_firmware | — |
| Other | netapp | h410c_firmware | — |
| Other | netapp | h410s_firmware | — |
| Other | netapp | h500s_firmware | — |
| Other | netapp | h700s_firmware | — |
References & sources
- seclists.org20201215 APPLE-SA-2020-12-14-4 Additional information for APPLE-SA-2020-11-13-1 macOS Big Sur 11.0.1web, Mailing list
- seclists.org20210201 APPLE-SA-2021-02-01-1 macOS Big Sur 11.2, Security Update 2021-001 Catalina, Security Update 2021-001 Mojaveweb, Mailing list
- about.gitlab.comreleases/2020/07/01/security-release-13-1-2-releaseweb
- bugs.gentoo.org717920web
- lists.apache.org[mina-dev] 20210225 [jira] [Created] (FTPSERVER-500) Security vulnerability in common/lib/log4j-1.2.17.jarweb, Mailing list
- security.netapp.comadvisory/ntap-20221028-0010web
- support.apple.comkb/HT211931web
- support.apple.comkb/HT212147web
- oracle.comsecurity-alerts/cpuapr2022.htmlweb
- pcre.orgoriginal/changelog.txtweb
- NVD (NIST)vuln/detail/CVE-2020-14155web
Changes to this CVE
Who changed this CVE and when: NVD (analysis, affected products, CVSS), the CVE publisher (CNA) and additional providers such as CISA (ADP).
Record modifiedCVE Program
Show 30 original changes
Individual changes of this event as published by NVD Type Action Before After Reference added —http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/Dec/32Reference added —http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2021/Feb/14Reference added —https://about.gitlab.com/releases/2020/07/01/security-release-13-1-2-release/Reference added —https://bugs.gentoo.org/717920Reference added —https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf9fa47ab66495c78bb4120b0754dd9531ca2ff0430f6685ac9b07772%40%3Cdev.mina.apache.org%3EReference added —https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20221028-0010/Reference added —https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211931Reference added —https://support.apple.com/kb/HT212147Reference added —https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.htmlReference added —https://www.pcre.org/original/changelog.txtReference removed http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/Dec/32—Reference removed http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2021/Feb/14—Reference removed https://about.gitlab.com/releases/2020/07/01/security-release-13-1-2-release/—Reference removed https://bugs.gentoo.org/717920—Reference removed https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf9fa47ab66495c78bb4120b0754dd9531ca2ff0430f6685ac9b07772%40%3Cdev.mina.apache.org%3E—Reference removed https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20221028-0010/—Reference removed https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211931—Reference removed https://support.apple.com/kb/HT212147—Reference removed https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html—Reference removed https://www.pcre.org/original/changelog.txt—Reference type removed http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/Dec/32 Types: Mailing List, Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2021/Feb/14 Types: Mailing List, Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://about.gitlab.com/releases/2020/07/01/security-release-13-1-2-release/ Types: Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://bugs.gentoo.org/717920 Types: Issue Tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf9fa47ab66495c78bb4120b0754dd9531ca2ff0430f6685ac9b07772%40%3Cdev.mina.apache.org%3E Types: Mailing List, Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20221028-0010/ Types: Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211931 Types: Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://support.apple.com/kb/HT212147 Types: Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html Types: Patch, Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://www.pcre.org/original/changelog.txt Types: Release Notes, Vendor Advisory—Source identifier: af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
Record modifiedMITRE
Show 30 original changes
Individual changes of this event as published by NVD Type Action Before After Reference added —http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/Dec/32Reference added —http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2021/Feb/14Reference added —https://about.gitlab.com/releases/2020/07/01/security-release-13-1-2-release/Reference added —https://bugs.gentoo.org/717920Reference added —https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf9fa47ab66495c78bb4120b0754dd9531ca2ff0430f6685ac9b07772%40%3Cdev.mina.apache.org%3EReference added —https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20221028-0010/Reference added —https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211931Reference added —https://support.apple.com/kb/HT212147Reference added —https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.htmlReference added —https://www.pcre.org/original/changelog.txtReference removed http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/Dec/32—Reference removed http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2021/Feb/14—Reference removed https://about.gitlab.com/releases/2020/07/01/security-release-13-1-2-release/—Reference removed https://bugs.gentoo.org/717920—Reference removed https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf9fa47ab66495c78bb4120b0754dd9531ca2ff0430f6685ac9b07772%40%3Cdev.mina.apache.org%3E—Reference removed https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20221028-0010/—Reference removed https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211931—Reference removed https://support.apple.com/kb/HT212147—Reference removed https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html—Reference removed https://www.pcre.org/original/changelog.txt—Reference type removed http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2020/Dec/32 Types: Mailing List, Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2021/Feb/14 Types: Mailing List, Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://about.gitlab.com/releases/2020/07/01/security-release-13-1-2-release/ Types: Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://bugs.gentoo.org/717920 Types: Issue Tracking, Patch, Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/rf9fa47ab66495c78bb4120b0754dd9531ca2ff0430f6685ac9b07772%40%3Cdev.mina.apache.org%3E Types: Mailing List, Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20221028-0010/ Types: Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211931 Types: Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://support.apple.com/kb/HT212147 Types: Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html Types: Patch, Third Party Advisory—Reference type removed https://www.pcre.org/original/changelog.txt Types: Release Notes, Vendor Advisory—Source identifier: cve@mitre.org
Record modifiedCISA ADP
CISA assessment (SSVC): exploitation: none known, automatable: yes
Show the original change
Individual changes of this event as published by NVD Type Action Before After SSVC assessment added —{"id":"CVE-2020-14155","role":"CISA Coordinator","options":[{"exploitation":"none"},{"automatable":"yes"},{"technicalImpact":"partial"}],"version":"2.0.3","timestamp":"2026-10-08T21:01:58.462927Z"}Source identifier: 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
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<a href="https://intel.neosec.eu/en/cve/CVE-2020-14155"><img src="https://intel.neosec.eu/badge/cve/CVE-2020-14155.svg?lang=en" alt="CVE-2020-14155 – NEOSEC Intel" height="20"></a>