An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when an attacker establishes a vulnerable Netlogon secure channel connection to a domain controller, using the Netlogon Remote Protocol (MS-NRPC). An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could run a specially crafted application on a device on the network. To exploit the vulnerability, an unauthenticated attacker would be required to use MS-NRPC to connect to a domain controller to obtain domain administrator access. Microsoft is addressing the vulnerability in a phased two-part rollout. These updates address the vulnerability by modifying how Netlogon handles the usage of Netlogon secure channels. For guidelines on how to manage the changes required for this vulnerability and more information on the phased rollout, see How to manage the changes in Netlogon secure channel connections associated with CVE-2020-1472 (updated September 28, 2020). When the second phase of Windows updates become available in Q1 2021, customers will be notified via a revision to this security vulnerability. If you wish to be notified when these updates are released, we recommend that you register for the security notifications mailer to be alerted of content changes to this advisory. See Microsoft Technical Security Notifications.
| Software | From | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| microsoft / windows_server_2008 | r2-sp1 | r2-sp1.x |
| microsoft / windows_server_2012 | r2 | r2.x |
| fedoraproject / fedora | 31 | 31.x |
| fedoraproject / fedora | 32 | 32.x |
| fedoraproject / fedora | 33 | 33.x |
| opensuse / leap | 15.1 | 15.1.x |
| opensuse / leap | 15.2 | 15.2.x |
| canonical / ubuntu_linux | 16.04 | 16.04.x |
| canonical / ubuntu_linux | 18.04 | 18.04.x |
| canonical / ubuntu_linux | 14.04 | 14.04.x |
| canonical / ubuntu_linux | 20.04 | 20.04.x |
| synology / directory_server | - | 4.4.5-0101 |
| samba / samba | 4.12.0 | 4.12.7 |
| samba / samba | 4.11.0 | 4.11.13 |
| samba / samba | - | 4.10.18 |
| debian / debian_linux | 9.0 | 9.0.x |
| oracle / zfs_storage_appliance_kit | 8.8 | 8.8.x |
| microsoft / windows_server_1903 | - | - |
| microsoft / windows_server_1909 | - | - |
A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.
CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.
A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.
Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.
Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.
SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.