Vulnerability in Microsoft Windows
CVE-2020-36164
An issue was discovered in Veritas Enterprise Vault through 14.0. On start-up, it loads the OpenSSL library. The OpenSSL library then attempts to load the openssl.cnf configuration file (which does not exist) at the following locations in both the System drive (typically C:\) and the product's installation drive (typically not C:\): \Isode\etc\ssl\openssl.cnf (on SMTP Server) or \user\ssl\openssl.cnf (on other affected components). By default, on Windows systems, users can create directories under C:\. A low privileged user can create a 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, access all installed applications, etc. This vulnerability only affects a server with MTP Server, SMTP Archiving IMAP Server, IMAP Archiving, Vault Cloud Adapter, NetApp File server, or File System Archiving for NetApp as File Server.
EPSS: 0.004 (35.3th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
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.
Affected products
- Microsoft Windows
- Veritas Enterprise_vault
- N/a — versions n/a
Public proof-of-concept exploits
References
- cve@mitre.org (x_refsource_MISC, Vendor Advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2020-36164?
- CVE-2020-36164 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. CVSS score: 9.3/10. Published 2021-01-06.
- How severe is CVE-2020-36164?
- Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.3 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2020-36164 known to be exploited?
- 2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.