CVE-2020-37155
Published: 07 February 2026
Summary
CVE-2020-37155 is a medium-severity Classic Buffer Overflow (CWE-120) vulnerability in Coreftp (inferred from references). Its CVSS base score is 6.7 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked at the 3.7th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-16 (Memory Protection).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2020-37155 is a buffer overflow vulnerability in Core FTP Lite version 1.3, specifically within the username input field. The issue enables attackers to crash the application by supplying oversized input, such as a 7000-byte payload of repeated 'A' characters, without requiring further interaction. It is classified under CWE-120 and carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).
The vulnerability can be exploited by unauthenticated attackers over the network with low attack complexity and no user interaction. Exploitation leads to a denial-of-service condition by crashing the affected FTP application, disrupting service availability while causing no impact to confidentiality or integrity.
Proof-of-concept exploits and advisories document the issue, including an entry on Exploit-DB at https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/48100 and a denial-of-service PoC advisory from VulnCheck at https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/core-ftp-lite-denial-of-service-poc. The vendor's site is available at http://www.coreftp.com/. No patch or specific mitigation steps are detailed in the CVE information.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2020-31108
Vulnerability details
Core FTP Lite 1.3 contains a buffer overflow vulnerability in the username input field that allows attackers to crash the application by supplying oversized input. Attackers can generate a 7000-byte payload of repeated 'A' characters to trigger an application crash…
more
without requiring additional interaction.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Buffer overflow in network-accessible FTP application input directly enables application exploitation resulting in denial-of-service crash (T1499.004).
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly requires validation of username input length/format to reject oversized payloads before they reach the vulnerable buffer in Core FTP Lite.
Applies memory-protection mechanisms (e.g., ASLR, DEP, stack canaries) that can prevent or contain the buffer-overflow crash triggered by the 7000-byte username.
Mandates timely remediation (patch, upgrade, or replacement) of the known buffer-overflow flaw in the unauthenticated FTP username handler.