Threat Intelligence / CVE / CVE-2020-1472

CVE-2020-1472 — Microsoft Windows Server 1903

CISA KEVRansomware
CVSS v3.1 5.5 (MEDIUM) · EPSS 94.3% (higher than 99.9% of all scored CVEs) · Priority 10/10 · Published 2020-08-17

As of 2026-02-23, CVE-2020-1472 is a MEDIUM-severity vulnerability in Microsoft Windows Server 1903, CVSS v3.1 5.5, EPSS 94.3% (99.9th percentile). It is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03), with a US federal remediation deadline of 2022-05-03, and CISA links it to known ransomware campaigns. Threadlinqs Intelligence links 6 tracked threat campaigns to CVE-2020-1472, most recently “Rhysida Ransomware Campaign Targeting German Public Administration (Stuttgart and Berlin, 2026)”.

Last updated: 2026-02-23

What is CVE-2020-1472?

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when an attacker establishes a vulnerable Netlogon secure channel connection to a domain controller, using the Netlogon Remote Protocol (MS-NRPC). An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could run a specially crafted application on a device on the network. To exploit the vulnerability, an unauthenticated attacker would be required to use MS-NRPC to connect to a domain controller to obtain domain administrator access. Microsoft is addressing the vulnerability in a phased two-part rollout. These updates address the vulnerability by modifying how Netlogon handles the usage of Netlogon secure channels. For guidelines on how to manage the changes required for this vulnerability and more information on the phased rollout, see How to manage the changes in Netlogon secure channel connections associated with CVE-2020-1472 (updated September 28, 2020). When the second phase of Windows updates become available in Q1 2021, customers will be notified via a revision to this security vulnerability. If you wish to be notified when these updates are released, we recommend that you register for the security notifications mailer to be alerted of content changes to this advisory. See Microsoft Technical Security Notifications.

The record classifies CVE-2020-1472 under weakness class NVD-CWE-noinfo. 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. 23 affected-product entries are recorded, across 8 vendors, listed below. The identifier was first published 2217 days ago.

Severity and exploitation probability

CVSS v3.1 base score
5.5 — MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS (FIRST)
94.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.9% of all scored CVEs
CISA KEV
Listed since 2021-11-03, federal remediation deadline 2022-05-03 — used in known ransomware campaigns
Threadlinqs priority
10/10 — CISA lists it as used in ransomware, which Threadlinqs scores at the maximum
Published
2020-08-17, last modified 2026-02-23

Is CVE-2020-1472 being exploited?

CISA added CVE-2020-1472 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. CISA flags the vulnerability as one used in known ransomware campaigns. It currently carries a trending score of 40 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.

Affected products and versions

Showing 22 of 23 recorded product entries.

How to fix CVE-2020-1472

The record marks a vendor fix as available for CVE-2020-1472. Patch reference: https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuApr2021.html. Vendor advisory: https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2020-1472. Because CVE-2020-1472 is KEV-listed, US federal civilian agencies were required to apply the vendor fix, or stop using the product, by 2022-05-03. Apply the vendor fix referenced above to every affected product listed in this record, then confirm the running version against the vendor advisory.

Threat activity tracking CVE-2020-1472

6 tracked threats in the Threadlinqs corpus reference CVE-2020-1472, either in the campaign’s CVE list or as an indicator on the campaign record.

Sources

Seeded from nvd and not yet processed by the Threadlinqs enrichment pipeline, so blank CVSS, EPSS or KEV fields above mean NOT MEASURED rather than measured-absent.

Full detection coverage & IOCs for threats exploiting CVE-2020-1472 are available via the Threadlinqs MCP server (Purple tier). View plans →

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