Vulnerability in Microsoft Windows

CVE-2020-36165

An issue was discovered in Veritas Desktop and Laptop Option (DLO) before 9.4. On start-up, it loads the OpenSSL library from /ReleaseX64/ssl. This library attempts to load the /ReleaseX64/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:/ReleaseX64/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, access all installed applications, etc. This impacts DLO server and client installations.

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

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-36165?
CVE-2020-36165 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. CVSS score: 9.3/10. Published 2021-01-06.
How severe is CVE-2020-36165?
Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.3 out of 10.
Is CVE-2020-36165 known to be exploited?
2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.