Threats / Microsoft / CVE-2020-0618
CVE-2020-0618
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-09-19
Microsoft SQL Server vulnerability
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services contains a deserialization vulnerability allowing authenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code with Report Server service account privileges.
Verdict
Today item, not a backlog item.
An authenticated attacker can exploit unsafe deserialization in page request handling to achieve remote code execution within the Report Server service context. High EPSS score and active exploitation indicate significant risk despite authentication requirement.
CISA KEV Yes · 2024-09-184Ransomware use Flagged4EPSS 0.99022 (verify live)5CVSS 9.8 (CISA)3CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: total3Exploit Weaponized · public exploit · Metasploit module · nuclei template12
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreReported exploitation
13 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2024-09-18), flagged for known ransomware use.
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.99022 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 9.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) · Affected: Microsoft, SQL Server. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-502 Deserialization of Untrusted Data — weakness family: Injection.CWE assignment from the public NVD record (may be stale); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical Impact: totalCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 1681 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
Public exploit available
Public exploit tooling is catalogued for this CVE (a functional/weaponized public exploit). Catalog entries: Metasploit module, nuclei template. We link the catalog page(s) only — no payload or code is hosted or restated here.Link, never host — the catalog page is the source; basicsecurity.net does not redistribute payloads.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I authenticate to SQL Server Reporting Services with valid credentials.
Business
Legitimate user accounts or compromised credentials provide initial access vector.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I craft a malicious page request containing a serialized object designed to execute code during deserialization.
Business
Application processes untrusted serialized data without proper validation.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I trigger deserialization of the malicious payload, causing arbitrary code execution.
Business
Unsafe deserialization allows attacker-controlled logic to run with service account privileges.
4
Data at risk — exfiltration narrative 4
Attacker
I execute commands and access data within the Report Server service account context.
Business
Attacker gains lateral movement capability and access to sensitive reporting data and database credentials.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05
Coverage & confidence
— what we know, and what we don’tEstablished (cited)
Coverage gaps — stated, not hidden
Disclosure & credit2
Catalogued by microsoftCNA
Credited with finding itSoroush Dalili ( @irsdl )finder
Found an error? Propose a correction.
A correction is a cited counter-claim — it must cite a source,
gets reviewed by a second human, and is never auto-applied. See the
correction convention and our identity
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