CVE-2020-0697

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in Microsoft Office OLicenseHeartbeat task, where an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run this task as SYSTEM.To exploit the vulnerability, an authenticated attacker would need to place a specially crafted file in a specific location, thereby allowing arbitrary file corruption.The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how the process validates the log file., aka 'Microsoft Office Tampering Vulnerability'.

Published: 2020-02-11 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2020-0697 is rated Moderate Risk (51.1/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.90%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2020-0697

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.24% 0.90% +0.66%
2 2025-06-11 0.38% 0.24% -0.14%
3 2025-03-30 — 0.38% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2020-0697

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]
7.2 2.0 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 3.9 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2020-0697

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2020-0697

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
microsoft office_365_proplus — cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:office_365_proplus:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2020-0697

cvelogic Threat Intelligence