CVE-2020-0601
Actively exploited. CVE-2020-0601 is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03) — exploitation has been observed in the wild, and US federal agencies are required to remediate it under BOD 22-01. Treat patching as urgent.
Public exploit code is available. Proof-of-concept or working exploit code for CVE-2020-0601 is indexed in Exploit-DB and GitHub PoC. Expect opportunistic scanning and exploitation attempts — prioritize remediation.
Microsoft Windows CryptoAPI (Crypt32.dll) contains a spoofing vulnerability in the way it validates Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) certificates. An attacker could exploit the vulnerability by using a spoofed code-signing certificate to sign a malicious executable, making it appear the file was from a trusted, legitimate source. A successful exploit could also allow the attacker to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks and decrypt confidential information on user connections to the affected software. The vulnerability is also known under the moniker of CurveBall.
CSIRTS triage
- What
- Microsoft Windows CryptoAPI contains a spoofing vulnerability in the validation of ECC certificates.
- Who is affected
- Deployments of Microsoft Windows using CryptoAPI.
- Urgency
- Immediate remediation is necessary due to active exploitation and critical severity.
- Action
- Apply the latest security updates from Microsoft.
AI-assisted analysis generated from the source advisory — verify against the original.
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Exploitation outlook
- Exploitation confirmedAlready exploited in the wild (CISA KEV) — the prediction phase is over. Patch now. Riskier than 100% of all EPSS-scored CVEs.
Exploit availability
Public exploit or proof-of-concept code for CVE-2020-0601 is indexed in these free datasets. Available exploit code raises real-world risk independent of the CVSS score.
- Exploit-DBA public exploit is published in the Exploit-DB archive.look it up ↗
- GitHub PoCPublic proof-of-concept repositories on GitHub reference this CVE.look it up ↗
Advisory coverage (1)
- criticalexploitedCVE-2020-0601: Microsoft Windows CryptoAPI Spoofing Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2021-11-03
External references
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