Vulnerability in Microsoft Windows
CVE-2020-36160
An issue was discovered in Veritas System Recovery before 21.2. On start-up, it loads the OpenSSL library from \usr\local\ssl. This library attempts to load the from \usr\local\ssl\openssl.cnf configuration file, which does not exist. By default, on Windows systems, users can create directories under C:\. A low privileged user can create a C:\usr\local\ssl\openssl.cnf configuration file to load a malicious OpenSSL engine, resulting in arbitrary code execution as SYSTEM when the service starts. This gives the attacker administrator access on the system, allowing the attacker (by default) to access all data and installed applications, etc. If the system is also an Active Directory domain controller, then this can affect the entire domain.
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 9.3 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.004 (35.0th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 35th percentile — 35.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.004 · change: 0.000
Affected products
Public proof-of-concept exploits
References
- www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/security/VTS20-017 (Vendor Advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2020-36160?
- CVE-2020-36160 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. CVSS score: 9.3/10. Published 2021-01-06.
- How severe is CVE-2020-36160?
- Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.3 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2020-36160 known to be exploited?
- 2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.