CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2020-7461 — Freebsd Freebsd security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.5

In FreeBSD 12.1-STABLE before r365010, 11.4-STABLE before r365011, 12.1-RELEASE before p9, 11.4-RELEASE before p3, and 11.3-RELEASE before p13, dhclient(8) fails to handle certain malformed input related to handling of DHCP option 119 resulting a heap overflow. The heap overflow could in principle be exploited to achieve remote code execution. The affected process runs with reduced privileges in a Capsicum sandbox, limiting the immediate impact of an exploit.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.5 (2.0)
Published
2021-03-26
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
operating-system
Weaknesses
CWE-787

Affected products

  • freebsd / freebsd / 11.3

Showing 1 representative product identities from 27 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Buffer bounds, memory safety, and memory corruption

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Identify affected native-code versions, build flags, architectures, parsers, codecs, drivers, and input paths in all shipped artifacts.
  • Determine whether untrusted data reaches the affected routine and the process privilege, sandbox, and network exposure.
  • Confirm statically linked, vendored, firmware, and platform-provided copies, not only package-manager records.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the maintained upstream correction or replace the affected component, then rebuild every dependent artifact from clean inputs.
  • Adopt bounds-checked interfaces, validated sizes and integer conversions, clear ownership, and memory-safe components where practical.
  • Enable supported compiler and runtime hardening and add sanitized tests and fuzz regression seeds derived from non-weaponized fixtures.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

The detailed catalog view below loads this exact record, its source evidence, and the full seven-phase agentic change plan.