CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2020-1098 — <p>An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when the Shell infrastructure component improperly handles objects in memory

High CVSS 7.8

<p>An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when the Shell infrastructure component improperly handles objects in memory. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run processes in an elevated context.</p> <p>To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would first have to log on to the system. An attacker could then run a specially crafted application that could exploit the vulnerability and take control of an affected system.</p> <p>The update addresses the vulnerability by correcting the way in which the Shell infrastructure component handles objects in memory and preventing unintended elevation from lower integrity application.</p>

Severity
High
CVSS
7.8 (3.1)
Published
2020-09-11
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
windows/system

Affected products

  • microsoft / windows_10 / 2004

Matched remediation archetype

Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map service accounts, operating-system identities, roles, capabilities, impersonation, set-user transitions, and administrative helper paths.
  • Determine whether untrusted users or lower-privilege processes can reach the affected transition or modify inputs it trusts.
  • Review file, socket, registry, device, job, container, and cloud-role permissions used before and after privilege changes.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and redesign privileged operations as a minimal, authenticated, allowlisted interface.
  • Drop privileges before processing untrusted input, verify the drop succeeds, and remove unnecessary roles, capabilities, and write permissions.
  • Validate ownership and permissions at time of use and add explicit lower-to-higher privilege boundary tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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