CVE-2017-20190 - Vulnerability Details - OpenCVE

Some Microsoft technologies as used in Windows 8 through 11 allow a temporary client-side performance degradation during processing of multiple Unicode combining characters, aka a "Zalgo text" attack. NOTE: third parties dispute whether the computational cost of interpreting Unicode data should be considered a vulnerability.

No CVSS v4.0

No CVSS v3.1

No CVSS v3.0

No CVSS v2

This CVE is not in the KEV list.

The EPSS score is 0.00096.

Exploitation none

Automatable yes

Technical Impact total

Default status is the baseline for the product, each version can override it (e.g. patched versions marked unaffected).

Vendor Product Default status Versions

n/a

n/a

affected

Version	Status	Constraints
`n/a`	affected	—

No data.

No data.

No data.

Project Subscriptions

Vendors	Products
Microsoft Subscribe	Windows Subscribe

Advisories

No advisories yet.

Fixes

Solution

No solution given by the vendor.

Workaround

No workaround given by the vendor.

References

Link	Providers
https://aka.ms/windowsbugbar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zalgo_text
https://talk.dynalist.io/t/dynalist-is-vulnerable-to-zalgo/1234

History

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 01:15:00 +0000

Type	Values Removed	Values Added
First Time appeared		Microsoft Microsoft windows
CPEs		cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows:-:::::::*
Vendors & Products		Microsoft Microsoft windows
Metrics		ssvc `{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'total'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}`

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 20:00:00 +0000

Type	Values Removed	Values Added
Weaknesses		CWE-176

Projects

Sign in to view the affected projects.

MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: mitre

Published: 2024-03-26T00:00:00.000Z

Updated: 2024-08-08T18:54:20.251Z

Reserved: 2024-03-26T00:00:00.000Z

Link: CVE-2017-20190

Vulnrichment

Updated: 2024-08-05T21:45:25.973Z

NVD

Status : Awaiting Analysis

Published: 2024-03-27T00:15:07.580

Modified: 2024-11-21T03:22:50.817

Link: CVE-2017-20190

Redhat

No data.

OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.

Weaknesses

CWE-176

{"dataType": "CVE_RECORD", "dataVersion": "5.1", "cveMetadata": {"state": "PUBLISHED", "cveId": "CVE-2017-20190", "assignerOrgId": "8254265b-2729-46b6-b9e3-3dfca2d5bfca", "assignerShortName": "mitre", "dateUpdated": "2024-08-08T18:54:20.251Z", "dateReserved": "2024-03-26T00:00:00.000Z", "datePublished": "2024-03-26T00:00:00.000Z"}, "containers": {"cna": {"providerMetadata": {"orgId": "8254265b-2729-46b6-b9e3-3dfca2d5bfca", "shortName": "mitre", "dateUpdated": "2024-03-26T23:49:42.036Z"}, "descriptions": [{"lang": "en", "value": "Some Microsoft technologies as used in Windows 8 through 11 allow a temporary client-side performance degradation during processing of multiple Unicode combining characters, aka a \"Zalgo text\" attack. NOTE: third parties dispute whether the computational cost of interpreting Unicode data should be considered a vulnerability."}], "tags": ["disputed"], "affected": [{"vendor": "n/a", "product": "n/a", "versions": [{"version": "n/a", "status": "affected"}]}], "references": [{"url": "https://talk.dynalist.io/t/dynalist-is-vulnerable-to-zalgo/1234"}, {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zalgo_text"}, {"url": "https://aka.ms/windowsbugbar"}], "problemTypes": [{"descriptions": [{"type": "text", "lang": "en", "description": "n/a"}]}]}, "adp": [{"providerMetadata": {"orgId": "af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108", "shortName": "CVE", "dateUpdated": "2024-08-05T21:45:25.973Z"}, "title": "CVE Program Container", "references": [{"url": "https://talk.dynalist.io/t/dynalist-is-vulnerable-to-zalgo/1234", "tags": ["x_transferred"]}, {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zalgo_text", "tags": ["x_transferred"]}, {"url": "https://aka.ms/windowsbugbar", "tags": ["x_transferred"]}]}, {"problemTypes": [{"descriptions": [{"type": "CWE", "cweId": "CWE-176", "lang": "en", "description": "CWE-176 Improper Handling of Unicode Encoding"}]}], "affected": [{"vendor": "microsoft", "product": "windows", "cpes": ["cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"], "defaultStatus": "unknown", "versions": [{"version": "8", "status": "affected", "lessThanOrEqual": "11", "versionType": "custom"}]}], "metrics": [{"other": {"type": "ssvc", "content": {"timestamp": "2024-04-15T16:50:02.920361Z", "id": "CVE-2017-20190", "options": [{"Exploitation": "none"}, {"Automatable": "yes"}, {"Technical Impact": "total"}], "role": "CISA Coordinator", "version": "2.0.3"}}}], "title": "CISA ADP Vulnrichment", "providerMetadata": {"orgId": "134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0", "shortName": "CISA-ADP", "dateUpdated": "2024-08-08T18:54:20.251Z"}}]}}

{"dataType": "CVE_RECORD", "containers": {"adp": [{"title": "CVE Program Container", "references": [{"url": "https://talk.dynalist.io/t/dynalist-is-vulnerable-to-zalgo/1234", "tags": ["x_transferred"]}, {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zalgo_text", "tags": ["x_transferred"]}, {"url": "https://aka.ms/windowsbugbar", "tags": ["x_transferred"]}], "providerMetadata": {"orgId": "af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108", "shortName": "CVE", "dateUpdated": "2024-08-05T21:45:25.973Z"}}, {"title": "CISA ADP Vulnrichment", "metrics": [{"other": {"type": "ssvc", "content": {"id": "CVE-2017-20190", "role": "CISA Coordinator", "options": [{"Exploitation": "none"}, {"Automatable": "yes"}, {"Technical Impact": "total"}], "version": "2.0.3", "timestamp": "2024-04-15T16:50:02.920361Z"}}}], "affected": [{"cpes": ["cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"], "vendor": "microsoft", "product": "windows", "versions": [{"status": "affected", "version": "8", "versionType": "custom", "lessThanOrEqual": "11"}], "defaultStatus": "unknown"}], "problemTypes": [{"descriptions": [{"lang": "en", "type": "CWE", "cweId": "CWE-176", "description": "CWE-176 Improper Handling of Unicode Encoding"}]}], "providerMetadata": {"orgId": "134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0", "shortName": "CISA-ADP", "dateUpdated": "2024-07-17T17:17:41.176Z"}}], "cna": {"tags": ["disputed"], "affected": [{"vendor": "n/a", "product": "n/a", "versions": [{"status": "affected", "version": "n/a"}]}], "references": [{"url": "https://talk.dynalist.io/t/dynalist-is-vulnerable-to-zalgo/1234"}, {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zalgo_text"}, {"url": "https://aka.ms/windowsbugbar"}], "descriptions": [{"lang": "en", "value": "Some Microsoft technologies as used in Windows 8 through 11 allow a temporary client-side performance degradation during processing of multiple Unicode combining characters, aka a \"Zalgo text\" attack. NOTE: third parties dispute whether the computational cost of interpreting Unicode data should be considered a vulnerability."}], "problemTypes": [{"descriptions": [{"lang": "en", "type": "text", "description": "n/a"}]}], "providerMetadata": {"orgId": "8254265b-2729-46b6-b9e3-3dfca2d5bfca", "shortName": "mitre", "dateUpdated": "2024-03-26T23:49:42.036Z"}}}, "cveMetadata": {"cveId": "CVE-2017-20190", "state": "PUBLISHED", "dateUpdated": "2024-08-08T18:54:20.251Z", "dateReserved": "2024-03-26T00:00:00.000Z", "assignerOrgId": "8254265b-2729-46b6-b9e3-3dfca2d5bfca", "datePublished": "2024-03-26T00:00:00.000Z", "assignerShortName": "mitre"}, "dataVersion": "5.1"}