Description
<p>An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when the OneDrive for Windows Desktop application improperly handles symbolic links. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could overwrite a targeted file with an elevated status.</p>
<p>To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would first have to log on to the system. An attacker could then run a specially crafted application that could exploit the vulnerability and delete a targeted file with an elevated status.</p>
<p>The update addresses this vulnerability by correcting where the OneDrive updater performs file writes while running with elevation.</p>
Published: 2020-09-11
Score: 7.1 High
EPSS: < 1% Very Low
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
AI Analysis

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Remediation

No vendor fix or workaround currently provided.

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Tracking

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Advisories
Source ID Title
EUVD EUVD EUVD-2020-8809 <p>An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when the OneDrive for Windows Desktop application improperly handles symbolic links. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could overwrite a targeted file with an elevated status.</p> <p>To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would first have to log on to the system. An attacker could then run a specially crafted application that could exploit the vulnerability and delete a targeted file with an elevated status.</p> <p>The update addresses this vulnerability by correcting where the OneDrive updater performs file writes while running with elevation.</p>
History

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 18:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description <p>An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when the OneDrive for Windows Desktop application improperly handles symbolic links. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could overwrite a targeted file with an elevated status.</p> <p>To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would first have to log on to the system. An attacker could then run a specially crafted application that could exploit the vulnerability and delete a targeted file with an elevated status.</p> <p>The update addresses this vulnerability by correcting where the OneDrive updater performs file writes while running with elevation.</p> <p>An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists when the OneDrive for Windows Desktop application improperly handles symbolic links. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could overwrite a targeted file with an elevated status.</p> <p>To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would first have to log on to the system. An attacker could then run a specially crafted application that could exploit the vulnerability and delete a targeted file with an elevated status.</p> <p>The update addresses this vulnerability by correcting where the OneDrive updater performs file writes while running with elevation.</p>

Subscriptions

Microsoft Onedrive
cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: microsoft

Published:

Updated: 2024-08-04T13:45:33.215Z

Reserved: 2020-08-04T00:00:00.000Z

Link: CVE-2020-16851

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Modified

Published: 2020-09-11T17:15:16.557

Modified: 2026-02-23T18:21:10.997

Link: CVE-2020-16851

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.

Weaknesses