CVE-2020-1490: 
vulnerability analysis and mitigation

An elevation of privilege vulnerability (CVE-2020-1490) exists in the Windows Storage Service when it improperly handles file operations. The vulnerability was disclosed and published on August 17, 2020, affecting various versions of Microsoft Windows 10 and Windows Server systems (NVD).

The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8 (HIGH) with the following vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. This indicates that the vulnerability requires local access, low attack complexity, low privileges, and no user interaction to exploit. The potential impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability is rated as high (NVD).

If successfully exploited, this vulnerability allows an attacker to gain elevated privileges on the victim system, potentially leading to complete system compromise. The attacker could then execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges, potentially taking full control of the affected system (CVE).

To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would first need to gain execution capabilities on the target system and then run a specially crafted application. This requirement for initial access somewhat limits the vulnerability's exploitability (NVD).

Microsoft has released a security update that addresses this vulnerability by correcting how the Storage Services handles file operations. Users are advised to apply the security update to affected systems (MSRC).