Threats / Amcrest / CVE-2020-5735
CVE-2020-5735
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
Amcrest Cameras and Network Video Recorder (NVR) vulnerability
Amcrest cameras and NVR devices are vulnerable to a stack-based buffer overflow via port 37777 that allows unauthenticated remote attackers to crash devices or execute arbitrary code.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
A remotely exploitable stack buffer overflow in Amcrest video surveillance equipment enables denial of service and potential code execution without authentication. Active exploitation has been observed in the wild.
CISA KEV Yes · 2021-11-035EPSS 0.35643 (verify live)6CVSS 8.8 (CISA)4CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: total4
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
1 independent public report of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.35643 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 8.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: Amcrest, Cameras and Network Video Recorder (NVR). Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-121 Stack-based Buffer Overflow — weakness family: Memory safety.CWE — CNA-assigned (CVE.org); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 574 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I craft a malicious network packet targeting port 37777 on an exposed Amcrest device without requiring credentials.
Business
Surveillance infrastructure becomes immediately vulnerable to compromise from any internet-connected attacker.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I overflow the stack buffer to corrupt memory and execute arbitrary code with device privileges.
Business
Attackers gain persistent access to video feeds, recordings, and network position for lateral movement.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I crash the device by triggering the buffer overflow, disrupting continuous monitoring.
Business
Security operations lose real-time visibility; incident response and forensic capabilities are degraded.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05