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Microsoft · Windows

CVE-2020-0787

Microsoft Windows Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) Improper Privilege Management Vulnerability

Exploited in attacks Used by ransomware High 7.8 Attack chance: 43%
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What it is

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when the Windows Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) improperly handles symbolic links, aka 'Windows Background Intelligent Transfer Service Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability'.

CISA: Microsoft Windows BITS is vulnerable to to a privilege elevation vulnerability if it improperly handles symbolic links. An actor can exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code with system-level privileges.

What to do

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Deadline for US federal agencies: July 28, 2022

Added to the CISA list
January 28, 2022
Published
March 12, 2020
Severity
High 7.8 CVSS 3.1
Chance of attacks in the next 30 days (EPSS)
43% in the top 1.3% of all known vulnerabilities
Weakness
CWE-269 CWE-59
More details
NVD · CVE.org · CISA
All references (2)

More exploited flaws from Microsoft

AddedVulnerabilityProductSeverityAttack chance
Oct 13, 2026Command InjectionCVE-2026-96951WindowsHigh 8.89.8%
Sep 8, 2026Link FollowingCVE-2026-81963WindowsHigh 7.80.4%
Sep 8, 2026Heap-Based Buffer OverflowCVE-2026-85880WindowsHigh 7.80.4%
May 20, 2026Buffer OverflowCVE-2008-4250WindowsCritical 9.899%
Apr 28, 2026Protection Mechanism FailureCVE-2026-32202WindowsMedium 4.371%
Apr 13, 2026Out-of-Bounds ReadCVE-2023-36424WindowsHigh 7.812%
Apr 13, 2026Link FollowingCVE-2025-60710used by ransomwareWindowsHigh 7.84.6%
Feb 17, 2026 Microsoft Windows Video ActiveX Control Remote Code ExecutionCVE-2008-0015WindowsHigh 8.877%

All of them →

Sources: Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (CISA, public domain), CVE records (cve.org) and EPSS (FIRST). The chance of attacks is the EPSS estimate that someone will try to exploit the flaw in the next 30 days.