CVE-2020-16916 Windows COM Server Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

What is CVE-2020-16916?

CVE-2020-16916 is a high-severity vulnerability in Microsoft Windows 10, published on 16 Oct 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

<p>An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when Windows improperly handles COM object creation. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could run arbitrary code with elevated privileges.</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 take control of an affected system.</p> <p>The update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how the Windows COM Server creates COM objects.</p>

Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-16916?

It affects 8 products.

Products include Microsoft Windows 10, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows 8.1, Microsoft Windows Rt 8.1, Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and 2 more.

How do I fix CVE-2020-16916?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-16916 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Is CVE-2020-16916 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-16916 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows 10

• CVE-2015-2426 Microsoft Windows Adobe Type Manager Library Remote Code Execution Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2015-1769 Microsoft Windows Mount Manager Privilege Escalation Exploited Medium 6.6
• CVE-2020-1467 Windows Hard Link Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability Critical 10.0
• CVE-2021-26424 Windows TCP/IP Remote Code Execution Vulnerability Critical 9.9
• CVE-2021-28476 Windows Hyper-V Remote Code Execution Vulnerability Critical 9.9

All Microsoft Windows 10 vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as GHSA-42r2-5q5x-6f5w.