CVE-2020-16977

HIGH

Visual Studio Code - Remote Code Execution via Malicious Jupyter Notebook File

Title source: llm
STIX 2.1

Description

<p>A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Visual Studio Code when the Python extension loads a Jupyter notebook file. 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.</p> <p>To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would need to convince a target to open a specially crafted file in Visual Studio Code with the Python extension installed.</p> <p>The update addresses the vulnerability by modifying the way Visual Studio Code Python extension renders notebook content.</p>

References (1)

Core 1
Core References

Scores

CVSS v3 7.0
EPSS 0.0335
EPSS Percentile 87.4%
Attack Vector LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Details

Status published
Products (1)
microsoft/visual_studio_code
Published Oct 16, 2020
Tracked Since Feb 18, 2026