What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2020-1098: Windows Shell Infrastructure Component Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

• Severity: medium (CVSS 4.6 v2.0)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.9% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2020-09-11 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

<p>An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when the Shell infrastructure component improperly handles objects in memory. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run processes in an elevated context.</p> <p>To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would first have to log on to the system. An attacker could then run a specially crafted application that could exploit the vulnerability and take control of an affected system.</p> <p>The update addresses the vulnerability by correcting the way in which the Shell infrastructure component handles objects in memory and preventing unintended elevation from lower integrity application.</p>

Affected products

• Microsoft Windows 10 Version 1607: 2004
• Microsoft Windows 10 2004: from 10.0.0 before publication — fixed in publication

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Microsoft Windows 10 2004 publication. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2020-1098
• https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2020-1098

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