THREATPORT/VULNERABILITY/CVE-2020-16977
HIGH SEVERITY

CVE-2020-16977

Visual Studio Code vulnerability

CVSS
7.0
EPSS
3.4%
EPSS pct
87th
Exploited
No known
<p>A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Visual Studio Code when the Python extension loads a Jupyter notebook file. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could run arbitrary code in the context of the current user. If the current user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker could take control of the affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.</p> <p>To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would need to convince a target to open a specially crafted file in Visual Studio Code with the Python extension installed.</p> <p>The update addresses the vulnerability by modifying the way Visual Studio Code Python extension renders notebook content.</p>
Affected vendor
Microsoft
Affected product
Visual Studio Code
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2020-10-16

Risk analysis

Based on its CVSS vector, this vulnerability is exploitable with local access, high attack complexity, requiring no privileges, user interaction. Successful exploitation leads to high impact to confidentiality, high impact to integrity, high impact to availability.

Its EPSS score of 3.4% reflects a lower probability of exploitation activity in the wild over the next 30 days, placing it above 87% of all scored CVEs.

Check your external exposure to CVE-2020-16977

  • Confirm whether Microsoft Visual Studio Code is running on any internet-facing host or subdomain.
  • Match discovered service fingerprints against the version affected by CVE-2020-16977.
  • Prioritise remediation if the asset is public, business-critical, or near authentication/payment flows.

How ThreatPort helps with CVE-2020-16977

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