CVE intelligence and bounded remediation
CVE-2020-16908 — Microsoft Windows 10 security vulnerability
<p>An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in Windows Setup in the way it handles directories.</p> <p>A locally authenticated attacker could run arbitrary code with elevated system privileges. After successfully exploiting the vulnerability, an attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.</p> <p>The security update addresses the vulnerability by ensuring Windows Setup properly handles directories.</p>
- Severity
- High
- CVSS
- 7.8 (3.1)
- Published
- 2020-10-16
- CISA KEV
- Not currently listed
- Ecosystem
- windows/system
Affected products
- microsoft / windows_10 / 1803
- microsoft / windows_10 / 1809
- microsoft / windows_10 / 1903
- microsoft / windows_10 / 1909
- 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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