CVE-2020-0986: Microsoft Windows Kernel Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
Actively exploited. At least one CVE in this advisory is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog — exploitation has been observed in the wild. Treat remediation as urgent.
Microsoft Windows kernel contains an unspecified vulnerability when handling objects in memory that allows attackers to escalate privileges and execute code in kernel mode.
CSIRTS triage
- What
- The Microsoft Windows kernel has a vulnerability that allows privilege escalation when handling objects in memory.
- Who is affected
- Users of Microsoft Windows with the affected kernel.
- Urgency
- Immediate remediation is necessary due to active exploitation and critical severity.
- Action
- Update Windows to the latest version.
AI-assisted analysis generated from the source advisory — verify against the original.
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Details
Original advisory: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-0986
Exploitation outlook
EPSS (FIRST.org) estimates each CVE’s probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — here is the CSIRTS.com read on those numbers.
- Exploitation confirmedCVE-2020-0986Already exploited in the wild (CISA KEV) — the prediction phase is over. Patch now. Riskier than 97% of all scored CVEs.
Referenced CVEs
| CVE | CSIRTS overview | External |
|---|---|---|
| CVE-2020-0986 | coverage & exploitation status | NVD · CVE.org |
Recent advisories for Microsoft Windows Kernel
A cluster of recent advisories against the same product widens the attack surface — attackers routinely chain freshly published CVEs on one product, so review these together.
- criticalexploitedCVE-2025-21335: Microsoft Windows Hyper-V NT Kernel Integration VSP Use-After-Free Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2025-01-14
- criticalexploitedCVE-2025-21334: Microsoft Windows Hyper-V NT Kernel Integration VSP Use-After-Free Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2025-01-14
- criticalexploitedCVE-2025-21333: Microsoft Windows Hyper-V NT Kernel Integration VSP Heap-based Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2025-01-14
- criticalexploitedCVE-2024-35250: Microsoft Windows Kernel-Mode Driver Untrusted Pointer Dereference Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2024-12-16
- criticalexploitedCVE-2024-30088: Microsoft Windows Kernel TOCTOU Race Condition Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2024-10-15
- criticalexploitedCVE-2024-38106: Microsoft Windows Kernel Privilege Escalation Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2024-08-13
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