CVE-2020-1048 — Windows Print Spooler Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

Executive Summary

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when the Windows Print Spooler service improperly allows arbitrary writing to the file system. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code with elevated system privileges. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would have to log on to an affected system and run a specially crafted script or application. The update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how the Windows Print Spooler Component writes to the file system.

Overview

7.8

CVSS HIGH

Important

MS Severity

Not Exploited

MS Exploit Status

Less Likely

MS Exploit Likelihood

Category Elevation of Privilege

Released May 12 2020

Last Updated May 12 2020

Publicly Disclosed No

CISA KEV Not Listed

Known Exploits None Known

EPSS Score 0.16502 — 0.96704 percentile

NVD CVSS 7.8 HIGH — matches MSRC

CVSS Vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C

ATTACK VECTOR

Local

ATTACK COMPLEXITY

Low

PRIVILEGES REQUIRED

Low

USER INTERACTION

None

SCOPE

Unchanged

CONFIDENTIALITY

High

INTEGRITY

High

AVAILABILITY

High

EXPLOIT CODE MATURITY

Proof-of-Concept

REMEDIATION LEVEL

Official Fix

REPORT CONFIDENCE

Confirmed

Temporal Score: 7.0

EPSS Score

0.16502

probability of exploitation in the next 30 days

0.96704 percentile - updated 2026-08-14

View on FIRST.org

Affected Products

27 affected products

Product	KB Article	Severity	Impact	Restart Required
Windows 10 for 32-bit Systems	`4556826 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 10 for x64-based Systems	`4556826 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 10 Version 1607 for 32-bit Systems	`4556813 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 10 Version 1607 for x64-based Systems	`4556813 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 10 Version 1709 for 32-bit Systems	`4556812 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 10 Version 1709 for ARM64-based Systems	`4556812 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 10 Version 1709 for x64-based Systems	`4556812 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 10 Version 1803 for 32-bit Systems	`4556807 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 10 Version 1803 for ARM64-based Systems	`4556807 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 10 Version 1803 for x64-based Systems	`4556807 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 10 Version 1809 for 32-bit Systems	`4551853 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 10 Version 1809 for ARM64-based Systems	`4551853 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 10 Version 1809 for x64-based Systems	`4551853 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 10 Version 1903 for 32-bit Systems	`4556799 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 10 Version 1903 for ARM64-based Systems	`4556799 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 10 Version 1903 for x64-based Systems	`4556799 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 10 Version 1909 for 32-bit Systems	`4556799 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 10 Version 1909 for ARM64-based Systems	`4556799 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 10 Version 1909 for x64-based Systems	`4556799 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows 7 for 32-bit Systems Service Pack 1 4556836 (Monthly Rollup) 4556843 (Security Only) Important Elevation of Privilege 4550964 Base: 7.8 Temporal: 7.0 Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C Yes 4556836 4556843 Windows 7 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 1 4556836 (Monthly Rollup) 4556843 (Security Only) Important Elevation of Privilege 4550964 Base: 7.8 Temporal: 7.0 Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C Yes 4556836 4556843 Windows 8.1 for 32-bit systems 4556846 (Monthly Rollup) 4556853 (Security Only) Important Elevation of Privilege 4550961 Base: 7.8 Temporal: 7.0 Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C Yes None Windows 8.1 for x64-based systems 4556846 (Monthly Rollup) 4556853 (Security Only) Important Elevation of Privilege 4550961 Base: 7.8 Temporal: 7.0 Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C Yes None Windows RT 8.1	`4556846 (Monthly Rollup)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows Server 2008 for 32-bit Systems Service Pack 2 4556860 (Monthly Rollup) 4556854 (Security Only) Important Elevation of Privilege 4550951 Base: 7.8 Temporal: 7.0 Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C Yes 4556860 4556854 Windows Server 2008 for 32-bit Systems Service Pack 2 (Server Core installation) 4556860 (Monthly Rollup) 4556854 (Security Only) Important Elevation of Privilege 4550951 Base: 7.8 Temporal: 7.0 Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C Yes 4556860 4556854 Windows Server 2008 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 2 4556860 (Monthly Rollup) 4556854 (Security Only) Important Elevation of Privilege 4550951 Base: 7.8 Temporal: 7.0 Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C Yes 4556860 4556854 Windows Server 2008 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 2 (Server Core installation) 4556860 (Monthly Rollup) 4556854 (Security Only) Important Elevation of Privilege 4550951 Base: 7.8 Temporal: 7.0 Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C Yes 4556860 4556854 Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 1 4556836 (Monthly Rollup) 4556843 (Security Only) Important Elevation of Privilege 4550964 Base: 7.8 Temporal: 7.0 Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C Yes 4556836 4556843 Windows Server 2008 R2 for x64-based Systems Service Pack 1 (Server Core installation) 4556836 (Monthly Rollup) 4556843 (Security Only) Important Elevation of Privilege 4550964 Base: 7.8 Temporal: 7.0 Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C Yes 4556836 4556843 Windows Server 2012 4556840 (Monthly Rollup) 4556852 (Security Only) Important Elevation of Privilege 4550917 Base: 7.8 Temporal: 7.0 Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C Yes None Windows Server 2012 (Server Core installation) 4556840 (Monthly Rollup) 4556852 (Security Only) Important Elevation of Privilege 4550917 Base: 7.8 Temporal: 7.0 Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C Yes None Windows Server 2012 R2 4556846 (Monthly Rollup) 4556853 (Security Only) Important Elevation of Privilege 4550961 Base: 7.8 Temporal: 7.0 Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C Yes None Windows Server 2012 R2 (Server Core installation) 4556846 (Monthly Rollup) 4556853 (Security Only) Important Elevation of Privilege 4550961 Base: 7.8 Temporal: 7.0 Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H/E:P/RL:O/RC:C Yes None Windows Server 2016	`4556813 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows Server 2016 (Server Core installation)	`4556813 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows Server 2019	`4551853 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows Server 2019 (Server Core installation)	`4551853 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows Server, version 1803 (Server Core Installation)	`4556807 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows Server, version 1903 (Server Core installation)	`4556799 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes
Windows Server, version 1909 (Server Core installation)	`4556799 (Security Update)`	Important	Elevation of Privilege	Yes

Patches

7 patches

Article	Type	Restart
`4556826`	Security Update	Yes
`4556813`	Security Update	Yes
`4556812`	Security Update	Yes
`4556807`	Security Update	Yes
`4551853`	Security Update	Yes
`4556799`	Security Update	Yes
`4556846`	Monthly Rollup	Yes

Exploits & PoC

5 public PoCs

Unverified third-party code

Public proof-of-concept repositories aggregated from PoC-in-GitHub. They are not reviewed and may be incomplete, non-functional, or malicious — inspect the code before running anything.

Repository	Stars	Published	Description
shubham0d/CVE-2020-1048	12	2020-06-23	POC exploit code for CVE-2020-1048(PrintDemon)
zveriu/CVE-2009-0229-PoC	3	2020-05-14	PoC for CVE-2009-0229 "Print Spooler Read File Vulnerability" LPE AFR (related to CVE-2020-1048)
Ken-Abruzzi/CVE-2020-1048	2	2020-09-21	An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when the Windows Print Spooler service improperly allows arbitrary writing to the file system, aka 'Windows Print Spooler Elevation of Privilege Vulnerab
talsim/printDemon2system	1	2025-06-23	PrintDemon (CVE-2020-1048) Privilege Escalation
Y3A/cve-2020-1048	0	2023-06-30	spoolsv.exe arb file write poc

Detection Rules

Detection available

Community detection & vulnerability-scanning rules aggregated from Sigma and Nuclei templates. Validate and tune to your environment before deploying.

Sigma rules 2

Suspicious PrinterPorts Creation (CVE-2020-1048) high CVE-2020-1048 Exploitation Attempt - Suspicious New Printer Ports - Registry high

Acknowledgments

Peleg Hadar ( @peleghd

References

MSRC Advisory MITRE NVD