Microsoft Malware Protection Engine
CVE-2020-1163 — Microsoft Windows Defender Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
Executive Summary
An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in Windows Defender that leads arbitrary file deletion on the system. To exploit the 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. The update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how the Windows Defender handles file operations.
Overview
7.8
CVSS HIGH
Important
MS Severity
Not Exploited
MS Exploit Status
Less Likely
MS Exploit Likelihood
CVSS Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
ATTACK VECTOR
Local
ATTACK COMPLEXITY
Low
PRIVILEGES REQUIRED
Low
USER INTERACTION
None
SCOPE
Unchanged
EPSS Score
0.00848
probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
0.53267 percentile - updated 2026-06-21
View on FIRST.org
Known Exploits
No known exploits have been linked for this CVE yet. When available, exploit references will be sourced from public repositories and may be unverified, incomplete, or non-functional. Always review code carefully before use in any environment.
Acknowledgments
Zhiniang Peng (@edwardzpeng) of Qihoo 360 Core Security and Jiadong Lu
References
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