CVE-2020-16894 Windows NAT Denial of Service Vulnerability

High 7.7 Published Updated

A privileged user in a guest VM can crash the host server via Windows NAT, requiring a patch to prevent denial of service.

Exploited in the wild
Not known
Login needed
Any signed-in user
Attackable
Over the internet
Victim action needed
Not needed
Fix
None listed

What is CVE-2020-16894?

CVE-2020-16894 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Microsoft Windows 10, published on 16 Oct 2020. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

<p>A denial of service vulnerability exists when Windows Network Address Translation (NAT) on a host server fails to properly validate input from a privileged user on a guest operating system. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could cause the host server to crash.</p> <p>To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker who already has a privileged account on a guest operating system, running as a virtual machine, could run a specially crafted application that causes a host machine to crash.</p> <p>The update addresses the vulnerability by modifying how Windows NAT accesses the host.</p>

Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-16894?

It affects 2 products.

Products include Microsoft Windows 10, Microsoft Windows Server 2016.

How do I fix CVE-2020-16894?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-16894 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2020-16894 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-16894 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Microsoft Windows 10 vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-c7jg-8cqr-88pq.

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