An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when an attacker establishes a vulnerable Netlogon secure channel connection to a domain controller, using the Netlogon Remote Protocol (MS-NRPC). An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could run a specially crafted application on a device on the network. To exploit the vulnerability, an unauthenticated attacker would be required to use MS-NRPC to connect to a domain controller to obtain domain administrator access. Microsoft is addressing the vulnerability in a phased two-part rollout. These updates address the vulnerability by modifying how Netlogon handles the usage of Netlogon secure channels. For guidelines on how to manage the changes required for this vulnerability and more information on the phased rollout, see How to manage the changes in Netlogon secure channel connections associated with CVE-2020-1472 (updated September 28, 2020). When the second phase of Windows updates become available in Q1 2021, customers will be notified via a revision to this security vulnerability. If you wish to be notified when these updates are released, we recommend that you register for the security notifications mailer to be alerted of content changes to this advisory. See Microsoft Technical Security Notifications.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2020-1472 is rated Critical Active Threat (83/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 94.38%, 100th percentile). Core evidence: CISA KEV confirms active exploitation (added 2021-11-03) affecting Microsoft / Netlogon. Unauthenticated remote administrative access may be possible. Mandatory action: The CISA remediation deadline has passed—treat as an emergency patch priority.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
: Microsoft Netlogon Privilege Escalation Vulnerability · CISA KEV detail
: 2021-11-03
: 2022-05-03
: Apply updates per vendor instructions.
| EDB-ID | Source | Kind | Published | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 49071 | exploit_db | edb | 2020-11-18 | Exploit-DB ↗ |
| — | nvd_ref | exploit_tag | Exploit-DB ↗ |
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 | 2025-11-21 | 93.39% | 94.38% | +0.99% |
| 2 | 2025-11-18 | 94.45% | 93.39% | -1.06% |
| 3 | 2025-03-17 | — | 94.45% | — |
Full EPSS history (32 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.5 | 3.1 | MEDIUM |
|
1.8 | 3.6 | [email protected] |
| 10.0 | 3.1 | CRITICAL |
|
3.9 | 6.0 | [email protected] |
| 9.3 | 2.0 | HIGH |
|
8.6 | 10.0 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
alpine
|
— | CVE-2020-1472: 1 source package rows (samba); 10 state rows across 10 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 10, open 0. | https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2020-1472 |
debian
|
not yet assigned | CVE-2020-1472 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (samba), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2020-1472 |
gentoo
|
normal | CVE-2020-1472: 1 GLSA(s) (202012-24), 1 atom(s) (net-fs/samba); latest impact normal. | https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2020-1472 |
redhat
|
critical | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-1472 |
suse
|
critical | CVE-2020-1472 severity critical: SUSE including 1090 source package names (amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20210304-hvm-ssd-x86_64, amazon/suse-sles-15-sp1-chost-byos-v20220127-hvm-ssd-x86_64, …), 2294 product×package rows across 91 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, Image SLES12-SP5-Azure-BYOS, … (91 product lines)): Fixed 2133, Known Affected 157, Known Not Affected 4. | https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2020-1472/ |
ubuntu
|
medium | CVE-2020-1472 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (samba), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bionic, focal, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 4, needs-triage 1. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2020-1472 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| microsoft | windows_server_1903 | — | cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_1903:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| microsoft | windows_server_1909 | — | cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_1909:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| microsoft | windows_server_2004 | — | cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_2004:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| microsoft | windows_server_2008 | r2 | cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_2008:r2:sp1:*:*:*:*:x64:* |
| microsoft | windows_server_2012 | — | cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_2012:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| microsoft | windows_server_2012 | r2 | cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_2012:r2:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| microsoft | windows_server_2016 | — | cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_2016:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| microsoft | windows_server_2019 | — | cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_2019:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| microsoft | windows_server_20h2 | — | cpe:2.3:o:microsoft:windows_server_20h2:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| fedoraproject | fedora | 31 | cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:31:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| fedoraproject | fedora | 32 | cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:32:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| fedoraproject | fedora | 33 | cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:33:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| opensuse | leap | 15.1 | cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:15.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| opensuse | leap | 15.2 | cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:15.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| canonical | ubuntu_linux | 14.04 | cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:* |
| canonical | ubuntu_linux | 16.04 | cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:* |
| canonical | ubuntu_linux | 16.04 | cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:* |
| canonical | ubuntu_linux | 18.04 | cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:* |
| canonical | ubuntu_linux | 20.04 | cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:* |
| synology | directory_server | < 4.4.5-0101 | cpe:2.3:a:synology:directory_server:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| samba | samba | < 4.10.18 | cpe:2.3:a:samba:samba:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| samba | samba | >= 4.11.0, < 4.11.13 | cpe:2.3:a:samba:samba:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| samba | samba | >= 4.12.0, < 4.12.7 | cpe:2.3:a:samba:samba:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| debian | debian_linux | 9.0 | cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| oracle | zfs_storage_appliance_kit | 8.8 | cpe:2.3:a:oracle:zfs_storage_appliance_kit:8.8:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |