CVE-2020-1027

Microsoft Windows Kernel Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

Verified by Precogs Threat Research
Last Updated: May 23, 2022
Base Score
9.8CRITICAL

Executive Summary

CVE-2020-1027 is a critical severity vulnerability affecting binary-analysis. It is classified as an undisclosed flaw. This vulnerability is actively being exploited in the wild.

Precogs AI Insight

"Precogs Binary SAST/DAST engine performs deep structural analysis of compiled binaries, detecting memory corruption, control-flow hijacking, and privilege escalation vulnerabilities without requiring source code access."

Exploit Probability (EPSS)
Moderate (11.9%)
Public POC
Available
Exploit Probability
High (84%)
Public POC
Actively Exploited
Affected Assets
binary analysisNVD Database

What is this vulnerability?

CVE-2020-1027 is categorized as a critical Buffer Overflow flaw. Based on our vulnerability intelligence, this issue occurs when the application fails to securely handle untrusted data boundaries.

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in the way that the Windows Kernel handles objects in memory. An attacker who successfully exploited the vul.

This architectural defect enables adversaries to bypass intended security controls, directly manipulating the application's execution state or data layer. Immediate strategic intervention is required.

Risk Assessment

MetricValue
CVSS Base Score9.8 (CRITICAL)
Vector StringCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
PublishedMay 23, 2022
Last ModifiedMay 23, 2022
Related CWEsN/A

Impact on Systems

Remote Code Execution: Attackers can overwrite the instruction pointer (EIP/RIP) to redirect execution to malicious shellcode.

Memory Corruption: Overwriting adjacent memory regions can corrupt critical application state, leading to unpredictable privilege escalation.

Denial of Service: Triggering segmentation faults and kernel panics results in immediate disruption of critical systems.

How to fix this issue?

Implement the following strategic mitigations immediately to eliminate the attack surface.

1. Memory-Safe Languages Where possible, migrate critical parsing logic to memory-safe languages like Rust or Go.

2. Safe Standard Libraries Replace unbounded C functions (strcpy, sprintf) with boundary-checking equivalents (strncpy, snprintf).

3. Compiler Defenses Ensure software is compiled with modern defensive flags: ASLR, DEP/NX, Stack Canaries (SSP), and Position Independent Executables (PIE).

Vulnerability Signature

// Vulnerable C Function
void parse_network_packet(char *untrusted_data) \{
    char local_buffer[128];
    // VULNERABLE: strcpy does not verify the length of the source data
    strcpy(local_buffer, untrusted_data);
    printf("Packet Processed.");
\}

// EXPLOIT PAYLOAD: 128 bytes of padding + [Overwrite EIP Address]

References and Sources