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CVE-2020-1472: Microsoft Netlogon Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

CVE-2020-1472 is rated critical with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 10.0 and affects Microsoft Netlogon, along with 15 other products in NVD’s configuration data. Per its scoring, it can be exploited over the network, without authentication, without any user interaction. The scored impact on confidentiality, integrity and availability is the highest available. CISA added it to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-11-03, which means exploitation in the wild has been observed.

Vulnerability description

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when an attacker establishes a vulnerable Netlogon secure channel connection to a domain controller, using the Netlogon Remote Protocol (MS-NRPC). An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could run a specially crafted application on a device on the network. To exploit the vulnerability, an unauthenticated attacker would be required to use MS-NRPC to connect to a domain controller to obtain domain administrator access. Microsoft is addressing the vulnerability in a phased two-part rollout. These updates address the vulnerability by modifying how Netlogon handles the usage of Netlogon secure channels. For guidelines on how to manage the changes required for this vulnerability and more information on the phased rollout, see How to manage the changes in Netlogon secure channel connections associated with CVE-2020-1472 (updated September 28, 2020). When the second phase of Windows updates become available in Q1 2021, customers will be notified via a revision to this security vulnerability. If you wish to be notified when these updates are released, we recommend that you register for the security notifications mailer to be alerted of content changes to this advisory. See Microsoft Technical Security Notifications.

Severity breakdown

CVSS v3.1 10.0: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

  • Attack vector: Network. Exploitable remotely over the network, with no need for local or physical access.
  • Attack complexity: Low. No special conditions; the attack can be repeated reliably.
  • Privileges required: None. No account or prior access is needed.
  • User interaction: None. No action from any user is needed.
  • Scope: Changed. Impact reaches beyond the vulnerable component to other resources.
  • Confidentiality impact: High. Total loss of confidentiality; sensitive data can be fully disclosed.
  • Integrity impact: High. Total loss of integrity; data or system state can be fully modified.
  • Availability impact: High. Total loss of availability; the component can be shut down.

Affected products

  • Microsoft Windows Server 1903: all versions listed by NVD
  • Microsoft Windows Server 1909: all versions listed by NVD
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2004: all versions listed by NVD
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2008: r2 sp1
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2012: all versions listed by NVD; r2
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2016: all versions listed by NVD
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2019: all versions listed by NVD
  • Microsoft Windows Server 20h2: all versions listed by NVD
  • Fedoraproject: 31; 32; 33
  • Opensuse Leap: 15.1; 15.2
  • Canonical Ubuntu Linux: 14.04; 16.04; 18.04; 20.04
  • Synology Directory Server: before 4.4.5-0101
  • Samba: before 4.10.18; from 4.11.0 before 4.11.13; from 4.12.0 before 4.12.7
  • Debian Linux: 9.0
  • Oracle Zfs Storage Appliance Kit: 8.8

References