Is CVE-2020-28638 actively exploited?

No active exploitation of CVE-2020-28638 has been confirmed so far. Continue monitoring, as exploit status can change.

Can CVE-2020-28638 be exploited remotely?

Yes. CVE-2020-28638 is exploitable remotely over the network (CVSS attack vector: Network).

What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-28638?

CVE-2020-28638 has a CVSS score of 9.8 (CRITICAL).

HOME VULNERABILITIESCVE-2020-28638

CRITICAL

CVE-2020-28638

CWE-287Published: November 13, 2020· Updated: Jun 17, 2026

9.8

CVSS v3.1

Official Description

ask_password in Tomb 2.0 through 2.7 returns a warning when pinentry-curses is used and $DISPLAY is non-empty, causing affected users' files to be encrypted with "tomb {W] Detected DISPLAY, but only pinentry-curses is found." as the encryption key.

NVD Source

Technical Analysis

CVE-2020-28638 can be exploited remotely over the network without requiring physical or adjacent access, significantly expanding the attack surface for threat actors.

The vulnerability requires no privileges and no user interaction, making it a prime target for automated exploitation campaigns and worm-like propagation.

A successful exploit results in complete confidentiality breach (data exposure), full integrity compromise (data manipulation), availability disruption (denial of service), with a CVSS base score of 9.8.

From a weakness classification perspective (CWE-287): Authentication bypass vulnerabilities allow attackers to access protected resources without valid credentials.