CVE-2020-16938

MEDIUMNVD 5.55.5—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 5.5 from GitHub Security Advisory published 2022-05-24. NVD baseline CVSS 5.5; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, nvd
Elevated
5.5EG
EchelonGraph verdictMonitorLow exploitation likelihood right now — keep watching.
  • Lower severity and no public exploit yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 2%CVSS: 5.5Exploit: Elevated riskExposed: 0

No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.

An information disclosure vulnerability exists when the Windows kernel improperly handles objects in memory. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could obtain information to further compromise the user’s system. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would have to log on to an affected system and run a specially crafted application. The vulnerability would not allow an attacker to execute code or to elevate user rights directly, but it could be used to obtain information that could be used to try to further compromise the affected system. The update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how the Windows kernel handles objects in memory.

CVSS v3
5.5
EG Score
5.5(medium)
EG Risk
45(Track)
EG Risk 45/100SSVC: Track

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity55% × 45%
Exploitation40% × 40%
Automatability30% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS PROB
2%
EPSS %ILE
82%
KEV
Not listed

Published

October 16, 2020

Last Modified

February 23, 2026

References (2)

All Vendor Advisories

(1)

Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 7× in last 7d / 30× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 120 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-08-20 22:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-08-19 17:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-08-18 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-08-17 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-08-16 14:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-08-16 02:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-08-15 01:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-08-13 21:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-08-12 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-08-08 16:33 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-08-07 16:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-08-06 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-08-05 19:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-08-04 15:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-08-04 10:34 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-08-03 10:32 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-08-02 02:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-08-01 04:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-07-30 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-07-30 01:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-07-28 15:32 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-07-27 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-07-26 14:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-07-25 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-07-25 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 75 more
  1. 2026-07-24 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-23 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-07-23 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-23 01:50 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-07-22 22:35 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-07-22 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-07-19 14:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-07-18 10:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-07-16 16:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-07-15 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-07-13 22:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-07-13 22:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-07-13 06:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-07-13 06:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-07-12 05:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-07-09 19:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-07-08 15:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-07-07 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-07-07 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-07-06 16:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-07-06 02:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-07-06 02:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  33. 2026-07-05 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  34. 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  35. 2026-07-04 06:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  36. 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  37. 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  38. 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  39. 2026-06-29 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-06-28 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  42. 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  43. 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  44. 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  47. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  48. 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  49. 2026-06-21 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  50. 2026-06-21 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  51. 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  52. 2026-06-21 01:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  53. 2026-06-19 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  54. 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  55. 2026-06-17 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  56. 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  57. 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  58. 2026-06-15 17:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  59. 2026-06-13 22:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  60. 2026-06-13 22:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  61. 2026-06-12 23:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  62. 2026-06-11 13:58 UTCEPSS rescore
  63. 2026-06-10 22:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  64. 2026-06-10 22:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  65. 2026-06-10 13:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  66. 2026-06-08 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  67. 2026-06-08 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  68. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  69. 2026-06-07 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  70. 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  71. 2026-06-06 13:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  72. 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  73. 2026-06-05 22:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  74. 2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  75. 2026-06-05 06:08 UTCEPSS rescore

Publicly available exploits

(1 reference)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (1 GitHub PoC). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

  • GitHub PoCioncodes/CVE-2020-16938
    First seen Oct 21, 2020

    Bypassing NTFS permissions to read any files as unprivileged user.

    Open source ↗

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2020-16938?
CVE-2020-16938 is a medium vulnerability published on October 16, 2020. <p>An information disclosure vulnerability exists when the Windows kernel improperly handles objects in memory. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could obtain information to further compromise the user’s system.</p> <p>To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would have to…
When was CVE-2020-16938 disclosed?
CVE-2020-16938 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on October 16, 2020, with the most recent update on February 23, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2020-16938 actively exploited?
CVE-2020-16938 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 17.8% of all scored CVEs.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-16938?
CVE-2020-16938 has a CVSS v3 base score of 5.5 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2020-16938?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2020-16938, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

Explore the affected products and dependency analysis for CVE-2020-16938

Explore →

Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2020-16938?

EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.

Start Free Scan →Browse All CVEs