What is CVE-2020-1380?
A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the way that the scripting engine handles objects in memory in Internet Explorer. The vulnerability could corrupt memory in such a way that an attacker could execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user. If the current user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could take control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a specially crafted website that is designed to exploit the vulnerability through Internet Explorer and then convince a user to view the website. An attacker could also embed an ActiveX control marked "safe for initialization" in an application or Microsoft Office document that hosts the IE rendering engine. The attacker could also take advantage of compromised websites and websites that accept or host user-provided content or advertisements. These websites could contain specially crafted content that could exploit the vulnerability. The security update addresses the vulnerability by modifying how the scripting engine handles objects in memory.
The record classifies CVE-2020-1380 under weakness class CWE-787. Its CVSS v3 base vector states that the flaw requires local access to the host, needs low-privilege credentials, needs no user interaction, and has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability. 1 affected-product entry is recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 2273 days ago.
Severity and exploitation probability
- CVSS v3.1 base score
- 7.8 — HIGH
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 - EPSS (FIRST)
- 24.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 97.8% of all scored CVEs
- CISA KEV
- Listed since 2021-11-03, federal remediation deadline 2022-05-03
- Threadlinqs priority
- 9/10 — CISA KEV-listed, which Threadlinqs floors at 9
- Published
- 2020-08-17, last modified 2025-10-21
Is CVE-2020-1380 being exploited?
CISA added CVE-2020-1380 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-11-03, which means the agency holds evidence of exploitation in the wild; US federal civilian agencies had to remediate it by 2022-05-03 under BOD 22-01. Weaponised exploit code for CVE-2020-1380 is publicly available. 1 public proof-of-concept repository is tracked for this identifier. It currently carries a trending score of 47 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.
- trickest/cve (trickest)
Affected products and versions
- Microsoft: Internet Explorer 11
How to fix CVE-2020-1380
Because CVE-2020-1380 is KEV-listed, US federal civilian agencies were required to apply the vendor fix, or stop using the product, by 2022-05-03. No vendor patch reference has been recorded for CVE-2020-1380 in the tracked sources. Follow the references below for a fix, and treat the products listed above as exposed until the vendor states otherwise.
Threat activity tracking CVE-2020-1380
1 tracked threat in the Threadlinqs corpus references CVE-2020-1380, either in the campaign’s CVE list or as an indicator on the campaign record.
Sources
Enriched from CVE.org, FIRST EPSS, CISA KEV, GitHub Security Advisories, public proof-of-concept repositories. Last verified by Threadlinqs on .