{"answers":{"affected":"It affects 3 products.","exploited":"There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-16856 in the wild and no public exploit code.","fix":"No fix has been published for CVE-2020-16856 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.","what":"CVE-2020-16856 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft Visual Studio, published on 11 Sep 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link."},"fix_prompt":"Check this codebase for CVE-2020-16856 and fix it if it is affected.\n\nWhat it is: CVE-2020-16856 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft Visual Studio, published on 11 Sep 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.\nExploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-16856 in the wild and no public exploit code.\n\nAffected product: Microsoft Visual Studio. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.\n\nTask:\n1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.\n2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.\n3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.\n4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.\n5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.\n\nReference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-16856/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-16856/index.md)","id":"CVE-2020-16856","markdown":"https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-16856/index.md","name":"CVE-2020-16856","record":{"aliases":[],"analysis":{"component_type":"desktop_application","fix_type":"patch","impacts":["code_execution","privilege_escalation"],"network_reachable":"adjacent_or_local","non_default_config":false,"product_category":"Visual Studio IDE","requires_auth":"none","summary":"Attackers can execute arbitrary code by tricking users into opening a malicious file in Visual Studio, potentially gaining full system control.","user_interaction":"required","vuln_class":"memory_corruption"},"analysis_generated_by":"qwen3.8-flash-next","assigner":"microsoft","cpe":[{"product":"visual_studio","vendor":"microsoft"},{"product":"visual_studio_2017","vendor":"microsoft"},{"product":"visual_studio_2019","vendor":"microsoft"}],"cvss":{"score":7.8,"severity":"high","source":"cna","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C","version":"3.1"},"cwes":[],"description":"\u003cp\u003eA remote code execution vulnerability exists in Visual Studio when it improperly handles objects in memory. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could run arbitrary code in the context of the current user. If the current user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker could take control of the affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo exploit the vulnerability, an attacker would have to convince a user to open a specially crafted file with an affected version of Visual Studio.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how Visual Studio handles objects in memory.\u003c/p\u003e","ecosystems":[],"exploits":{"exploitdb":0,"first_seen":null,"github_poc":0,"max_poc_stars":null,"metasploit":0,"nuclei":0,"refs":[],"tier":"none_known"},"has_fix":null,"headline":"Visual Studio Remote Code Execution Vulnerability","id":"CVE-2020-16856","indexable":true,"kev":null,"kind":"cve","links":{"ecosystem":null,"product":"microsoft:visual_studio","products":["microsoft:visual_studio","microsoft:visual_studio_2017","microsoft:visual_studio_2019"],"type":"memory_corruption","year":"2020"},"n_packages":0,"n_references":1,"next":{"headline":"Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations (on-premises) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability","id":"CVE-2020-16857"},"packages":[],"prev":{"headline":"Microsoft Office Information Disclosure Vulnerability","id":"CVE-2020-16855"},"products":["Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Update 5","Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 Update 5","Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Update 3","Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9 (includes 15.0 - 15.8)","Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 version 16.0","Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 version 16.4 (includes 16.0 - 16.3)","Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 version 16.7 (includes 16.0 – 16.6)"],"published":"2020-09-11","related":[{"cvss_score":8.8,"headline":"Visual Studio Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability","id":"CVE-2025-49739","kev_date_added":null,"published":"2025-07-08"},{"cvss_score":8.8,"headline":"Visual Studio Remote Code Execution Vulnerability","id":"CVE-2022-35777","kev_date_added":null,"published":"2022-08-09"},{"cvss_score":8.8,"headline":"Visual Studio Remote Code Execution Vulnerability","id":"CVE-2022-35825","kev_date_added":null,"published":"2022-08-09"},{"cvss_score":8.8,"headline":"Visual Studio Remote Code Execution Vulnerability","id":"CVE-2022-35826","kev_date_added":null,"published":"2022-08-09"},{"cvss_score":8.8,"headline":"Visual Studio Remote Code Execution Vulnerability","id":"CVE-2022-35827","kev_date_added":null,"published":"2022-08-09"},{"cvss_score":7.8,"headline":"Visual Studio Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability","id":"CVE-2024-20656","kev_date_added":null,"published":"2024-01-09"},{"cvss_score":7.8,"headline":"Diagnostics Hub Standard Collector Service Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability","id":"CVE-2021-28313","kev_date_added":null,"published":"2021-04-13"}],"sources":[{"class":"attribution","licence":"CVE Terms of Use (MITRE)","name":"CVE List","prefix":"CVE"},{"class":"attribution","licence":"US public information, NVD API terms","name":"NVD"},{"class":"attribution","licence":"FIRST CVSS licence","name":"CVSS (FIRST)"}],"ssvc":{"automatable":null,"exploitation":null,"technical_impact":null},"state":"PUBLISHED","updated":"2024-08-04","vendors":["Microsoft"]},"summary":"Attackers can execute arbitrary code by tricking users into opening a malicious file in Visual Studio, potentially gaining full system control.","url":"https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-16856/"}