CVE-2020-0683
Published: 11 February 2020
Summary
CVE-2020-0683 is a high-severity Link Following (CWE-59) vulnerability in Microsoft Windows 10 1709. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, ranked in the top 3.1% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-6 (Least Privilege) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation).
Deeper analysis
An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in the Windows Installer component when MSI packages process symbolic links. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2020-0683 and distinct from CVE-2020-0686, carries a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8 and is associated with CWE-59.
A local attacker with low privileges can exploit the issue without user interaction to obtain elevated rights on an affected system, resulting in full control over confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the host.
Microsoft has published security guidance for the vulnerability, and the flaw appears in CISA's catalog of known exploited vulnerabilities, confirming observed in-the-wild exploitation.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2020-2176
Vulnerability details
An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in the Windows Installer when MSI packages process symbolic links, aka 'Windows Installer Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability'. This CVE ID is unique from CVE-2020-0686.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 03 November 2021
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly requires validation of input data (file paths and symbolic links) processed by MSI packages, blocking the symlink traversal used for privilege escalation.
Enforces least-privilege execution for Windows Installer, limiting the ability of a low-privileged local attacker to obtain full system rights via the symlink flaw.
Requires integrity verification of files and links before privileged processing, mitigating unauthorized modification or redirection attacks in MSI handling.