What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2020-5254: NetHack hilite_status parsing privilege escalation

• Severity: high (CVSS 8.1 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 1.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2020-03-10 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-125

Description

In NetHack before 3.6.6, some out-of-bound values for the hilite_status option can be exploited. NetHack 3.6.6 resolves this issue.

Affected products

• NetHack: from 3.6.1 before 3.6.6 — fixed in 3.6.6

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: NetHack 3.6.6. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://github.com/NetHack/NetHack/security/advisories/GHSA-2ch6-6r8h-m2p9
• https://github.com/NetHack/NetHack/security/advisories/GHSA-2ch6-6r8h-m2p9

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