What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2020-16863: Windows Remote Desktop Service Denial of Service Vulnerability

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v2.0)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 5.8% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2020-10-16 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

<p>A denial of service vulnerability exists in Windows Remote Desktop Service when an attacker connects to the target system using RDP and sends specially crafted requests. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could cause the Remote Desktop Service on the target system to stop responding.</p> <p>To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would need to run a specially crafted application against a server which provides Remote Desktop Service.</p> <p>The update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how Remote Desktop Service handles connection requests.</p>

Affected products

• Microsoft Windows 7: all versions
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008: r2-sp1
• Microsoft Windows 7: from 6.1.0 before publication — fixed in publication
• Microsoft Windows 7 Service Pack 1: from 6.1.0 before publication — fixed in publication
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1: from 6.1.0 before publication — fixed in publication

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Microsoft Windows 7 publication; Microsoft Windows 7 Service Pack 1 publication; Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 publication. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2020-16863
• https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2020-16863

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