CVE-2020-1472

Netlogon Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

MEDIUM

5.5

CVSS Score

Published: August 17, 2020 at 07:13 PM UTC

Updated: June 17, 2026 at 03:01 AM UTC

15 products affected across 8 vendorsDebian LinuxWindows Server 2016Windows Server 2019

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Severity

MEDIUM5.5

Exploitation

CISA KEV

Exploit prediction

EPSS 99%

SSVC

Active

Actively Exploited

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog

EPSS Score99.4%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) estimates a 99.4% chance this CVE is exploited in the wild within the next 30 days — higher than 100% of all CVEs. It complements CVSS: a high EPSS on a mid-severity CVE can still be urgent.

Microsoft's Netlogon Remote Protocol (MS-NRPC) contains a privilege escalation vulnerability when an attacker establishes a vulnerable Netlogon secure channel connection to a domain controller. An attacker who successfully exploits the vulnerability could run a specially crafted application on a device on the network. The vulnerability is also known under the moniker of Zerologon.

Required Action

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Ransomware Use

Known

Added to KEV

Nov 3, 2021

Remediation Due

May 3, 2022

1637 days overdue

Notes

Reference CISA's ED 20-04 (https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/directives/ed-20-04-mitigate-netlogon-elevation-privilege-vulnerability-august-2020-patch-tuesday) for further guidance and requirements. Note: The due date for addressing this vulnerability aligns with the requirements outlined in ED 20-04. https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-1472

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.