No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2020-16874

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

Published2020-09-11

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

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. 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.

Timeline

dates in UTC

2020-09-1117:15CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 21:37 UTC

Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days

Block these indicators

Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-16874?format=txt
CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2020-16874?format=csv
TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD

Microsoft visual studio

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
2012.x	= 2012	no fix published	NVD
2013.x	= 2013	no fix published	NVD
2015.x	= 2015	no fix published	NVD

Microsoft visual studio 2019

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
16.x	≥ 16.0, ≤ 16.3	no fix published	NVD
16.x	≥ 16.5, ≤ 16.6	no fix published	NVD

Microsoft visual studio 2017

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
15.x	≥ 15.0, ≤ 15.8	no fix published	NVD

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Fix

Advisories and patches

portal.msrc.microsoft.comPatch · Vendor Advisory

Detection

Nuclei template: none so far
Exploit-DB: no entry
Proof-of-concept repositories: none listed

Sources

CNACVSS 3.17.8read 2026-10-23
NVDCVSS 3.17.8read 2026-10-23
NVDCVSS 2.09.3read 2026-10-23
FIRST EPSSEPSS score4.3 %2026-10-22

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published: 2020-09-11
Last Modified: 2026-06-17
NVD status: Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-16874?

Is CVE-2020-16874 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2020-16874 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 4.3% on 2026-10-22, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2020-16874?

CVE-2020-16874 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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