CVE-2020-1537: 
vulnerability analysis and mitigation

An elevation of privilege vulnerability (CVE-2020-1537) exists in Windows Remote Access when it improperly handles file operations. The vulnerability was disclosed during Microsoft's August 2020 Patch Tuesday updates. This security flaw affects multiple Windows versions including Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, Windows 10, and various Windows Server versions (Threatpost, 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. The attack requires local access and low privileges, but no user interaction is needed. The vulnerability allows for complete compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the target system (NVD).

A successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to gain elevated privileges on the affected system. However, the attacker would first need to have the ability to execute code on the target system before exploiting this vulnerability (NVD).

Microsoft has rated the exploitation of this vulnerability as 'less likely' due to the requirement that an attacker must first have code execution capabilities on the target system. The attacker would need to run a specially crafted application to exploit the vulnerability (Threatpost).

Microsoft has released security updates to address this vulnerability. The security update fixes the issue by ensuring that Windows Remote Access properly handles file operations. Users running Windows 8.1 or Server 2012 R2 should install update 4578013 to be protected (Threatpost).