CVE-2020-1472 — Microsoft Netlogon Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

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

01What is this vulnerability?

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…

02Affected products

03Active exploitation status

Yes — actively exploited. Added to the CISA KEV catalog on 2021-11-03. Ransomware use: Known.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Open the Sigma generator with a pre-filled prompt for this CVE to draft a starting detection in your stack of choice:

Open in Sigma generator →

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2020-08-17T19:13:05.000Z
• Last modified: 2025-10-21T23:35:37.656Z
• Added to CISA KEV: 2021-11-03
• BOD 22-01 due: 2022-05-03

09References

• portal.msrc.microsoft.com — https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2020-1472
• www.kb.cert.org — https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/490028
• www.openwall.com — http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/09/17/2
• usn.ubuntu.com — https://usn.ubuntu.com/4510-1/
• usn.ubuntu.com — https://usn.ubuntu.com/4510-2/
• lists.fedoraproject.org — https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedorapro…
• lists.opensuse.org — http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-09/msg00080.html
• lists.opensuse.org — http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-09/msg00086.html
• lists.fedoraproject.org — https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedorapro…
• lists.fedoraproject.org — https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedorapro…
• usn.ubuntu.com — https://usn.ubuntu.com/4559-1/
• lists.debian.org — https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/11/msg00041.html
• security.gentoo.org — https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202012-24
• www.oracle.com — https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuApr2021.html
• packetstormsecurity.com — http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/159190/Zerologon-Proof-Of-Concept.html
• www.synology.com — https://www.synology.com/security/advisory/Synology_SA_20_21
• packetstormsecurity.com — http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/160127/Zerologon-Netlogon-Privilege-Escalat…