CVE-2020-1133
📋 TL;DR
This is a local privilege escalation vulnerability in Microsoft's Diagnostics Hub Standard Collector component. An attacker with local access can exploit it to run arbitrary code with elevated system privileges. This affects Windows systems where the Diagnostics Hub feature is present.
💻 Affected Systems
- Microsoft Windows
📦 What is this software?
Visual Studio by Microsoft
Windows 10 by Microsoft
Windows 10 by Microsoft
Windows 10 by Microsoft
Windows 10 by Microsoft
Windows 10 by Microsoft
Windows 10 by Microsoft
Windows 10 by Microsoft
Windows 10 by Microsoft
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Full system compromise where an attacker gains SYSTEM-level privileges, enabling complete control over the affected system, data theft, and lateral movement.
Likely Case
Local attacker elevates from standard user to administrator privileges, allowing installation of malware, persistence mechanisms, or credential harvesting.
If Mitigated
Limited impact if proper access controls restrict local user accounts and the system is fully patched.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires running a specially crafted application on the target system, suggesting some technical skill is needed.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Apply the May 2020 security updates from Microsoft
Vendor Advisory: https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2020-1133
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Open Windows Update settings. 2. Check for updates. 3. Install the May 2020 security updates. 4. Restart the system when prompted.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable Diagnostics Hub Standard Collector Service
windowsStop and disable the service to prevent exploitation, though this may affect diagnostic functionality.
sc stop DiagTrack
sc config DiagTrack start= disabled
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Restrict local user access to prevent unauthorized users from running applications on the system.
- Implement application whitelisting to block execution of untrusted or unknown applications.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check if the May 2020 security update is installed via Windows Update history or systeminfo command.Check Version:
systeminfo | findstr /B /C:"OS Name" /C:"OS Version"Verify Fix Applied:
Verify the update is applied by checking the installed updates list for KB4556799 or later relevant patches.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual process creation events related to DiagTrack or Diagnostics Hub services
- File operation errors in system logs that might indicate exploitation attempts
Network Indicators:
- No network indicators as this is a local privilege escalation
SIEM Query:
EventID=4688 AND (NewProcessName LIKE '%DiagTrack%' OR NewProcessName LIKE '%DiagnosticsHub%') AND SubjectUserName NOT IN (expected_users)