CVE-2020-16939

HIGHNVD 7.87.8—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 7.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2022-05-24. NVD baseline CVSS 7.8; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, nvd
Elevated
7.8
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS: 2%CVSS: 7.8Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

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

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when Group Policy improperly checks access. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run processes in an elevated context. To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker would first have to log on to the system, and then run a specially crafted application to take control over the affected system. The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how Group Policy checks access.

CVSS v3
7.8
EG Score
7.8(medium)
EG Risk
56(Track)
EG Risk 56/100SSVC: 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
Severity78% × 45%
Exploitation40% × 40%
Automatability30% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS
82.4%
KEV
Not listed

Published

October 16, 2020

Last Modified

February 23, 2026

References (4)

Weakness Classification(2)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

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 13× in last 7d / 45× 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.

  1. 2026-07-23 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-23 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-07-23 01:50 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-07-22 22:35 UTCEG score recompute
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  67. 2026-05-24 16:48 UTCEPSS rescore
  68. 2026-05-23 06:33 UTCEG score recompute
  69. 2026-05-23 06:33 UTCVendor advisory
  70. 2026-05-23 06:33 UTCGHSA enrichment

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 PoCrogue-kdc/CVE-2020-16939
    First seen Oct 14, 2020

    PoC code for CVE-2020-16939 Windows Group Policy DACL Overwrite Privilege Escalation

    Open source ↗

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2020-16939?
CVE-2020-16939 is a high vulnerability published on October 16, 2020. <p>An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when Group Policy improperly checks access. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run processes in an elevated context.</p> <p>To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker would first have to log on to the system, and then run…
When was CVE-2020-16939 disclosed?
CVE-2020-16939 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-2020-16939 actively exploited?
CVE-2020-16939 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 82.4% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-16939?
CVE-2020-16939 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2020-16939?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2020-16939, 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

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