Microsoft Malware Protection Engine
CVE-2020-1461 — Microsoft Defender Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
Executive Summary
An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when the MpSigStub.exe for Defender allows file deletion in arbitrary locations. To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker would first have to log on to the system. An attacker could then run a specially crafted command that could exploit the vulnerability and delete protected files on an affected system once MpSigStub.exe ran again. The update addresses the vulnerability and blocks the arbitrary deletion.
Overview
7.1
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:N/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
0.0072
probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
0.49024 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) and Fangming Gu (@afang5472)
References
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