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CVE Number Vulnerability Product Severity Date
CVE-2020-16874 Visual Studio Remote Code Execution Vulnerability Microsoft Visual Studio Critical 09-09-2020

Technical Information

Brief overview of the risk:

A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Visual Studio when it improperly handles objects in memory. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could run arbitrary code in the context of the current user. If the current user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker could take control of the affected system.

 

Detailed Information on the risk:

An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.
To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker would have to convince a user to open a specially crafted file with an affected version of Visual Studio.
The update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how Visual Studio handles objects in memory.

Further information on this vulnerability is available at : CVE-2020-16874

Affected Software

Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 version 16.7 (includes 16.0 – 16.6)
Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9 (includes 15.0 - 15.8)
Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 version 16.0
Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 version 16.4 (includes 16.0 - 16.3)
Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Update 5
Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 Update 5
Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Update 3