CVE-2020-15264Privilege Escalation in Boxstarter
- 8.0HighCVSS base score
- 1.6%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 24% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
The Boxstarter installer before version 2.13.0 configures C:\ProgramData\Boxstarter to be in the system-wide PATH environment variable. However, this directory is writable by normal, unprivileged users. To exploit the vulnerability, place a DLL in this directory that a privileged service is looking for. For example, WptsExtensions.dll When Windows starts, it'll execute the code in DllMain() with SYSTEM privileges. Any unprivileged user can execute code with SYSTEM privileges. The issue is fixed in version 3.13.0
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 4 months later
· 4 months later
Published
- 4 years later
· 4 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High8.0 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 1.6% · top 24% of all CVEs (15 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 8.0.
Affected products
- affected < 2.13.0
References
References3
- https://github.com/chocolatey/boxstarter/security/advisories/GHSA-rpgx-h675-r3jf (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://github.com/chocolatey/boxstarter/commit/67e320491813550b48900e87105a34ceefdcf633 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- VU#208577 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_CERT-VNx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2020-7271 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2020-15264)Record last updated .