CVE intelligence and bounded remediation
CVE-2020-16877 — <p>An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when Microsoft Windows improperly handles reparse points
<p>An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when Microsoft Windows improperly handles reparse points. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could overwrite or delete a targeted file that would normally require elevated permissions.</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 overwrite or delete files.</p> <p>The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how Windows handles reparse points.</p>
- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 7.1 (3.1)
- Published
- 2020-10-16
- CISA KEV
- Not currently listed
- Ecosystem
- windows/system
Affected products
- microsoft / windows_10 / 1903
- microsoft / windows_10 / 1909
- microsoft / windows_10 / 2004
- microsoft / windows_server_2016 / 1903
- microsoft / windows_server_2016 / 1909
- microsoft / windows_server_2016 / 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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