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A critical format string vulnerability exists in AnyDesk for Linux and FreeBSD versions prior to 5.5.3 (CVE-2020-13160). The front-end process processes announcement frames containing user-controlled data (hostname and username), which are unsafely used as format strings in vsnprintf calls. This allows an attacker to craft a single malicious UDP packet that triggers the vulnerability, enabling arbitrary memory writes. Due to the absence of modern binary protections (no RELRO, no stack canary, no NX, no PIE, and RWX heap), the attacker can overwrite the GOT entry for the time function and redirect execution to shellcode placed in the heap, achieving remote code execution.
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1 valid exploit after Mallory filtered fakes, detection scripts, and README-only repos (2 hidden).
This repository contains a single Metasploit module (modules/exploits/linux/misc/cve_2020_13160_anydesk.rb) that exploits a remotely-triggerable format string vulnerability (CVE-2020-13160) in the AnyDesk GUI for Linux (version 5.5.2 on Ubuntu 18.04/20.04 x64). The exploit works by sending a specially crafted UDP discovery packet to the AnyDesk service on port 50001. The vulnerability is only triggered when the AnyDesk GUI frontend is running. The module first attempts to discover the service and confirm the target OS, then sends a malicious packet that leverages the format string bug to overwrite a GOT entry (time@got.plt), allowing execution of arbitrary code (Metasploit payload) as the user running the GUI. The exploit is operational and allows for custom payloads up to 512 bytes, with some character restrictions. The only network endpoint involved is UDP port 50001 on the target. The code is structured as a standard Metasploit exploit module, with discovery, check, and exploit routines.
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1 sources tracked across advisories and community write-ups. News coverage will land here when it surfaces.
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