CVE-2020-16939 Group Policy Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

High 7.8 Published Updated

An attacker with local access can exploit improper access checks in Group Policy to execute code with elevated privileges on Windows systems.

Exploited in the wild
Not known
Login needed
Any signed-in user
Attackable
Local or same network only
Victim action needed
Not needed
Fix
None listed

What is CVE-2020-16939?

CVE-2020-16939 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 Group Policy improperly checks access. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run processes in an elevated context.</p> <p>To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker would first have to log on to the system, and then run a specially crafted application to take control over the affected system.</p> <p>The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how Group Policy checks access.</p>

Weakness: CWE-59

Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-16939?

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-2020-16939?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-16939 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Is CVE-2020-16939 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-16939 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code: 1 proofs of concept on GitHub.

All Microsoft Windows 10 vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-fh2p-293q-jmxp.

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