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CVE-2020-17023

25
FAUCET Score

CVE-2020-17023 is a remote code execution vulnerability affecting Microsoft Visual Studio Code, triggered when a user opens a malicious 'package.json' file. This local attack requires user interaction (UI:R) and has low attack complexity (AC:L), allowing an attacker to run arbitrary code with the privileges of the current user, potentially leading to full system compromise. While not currently in CISA's KEV catalog and lacking public exploit code, it has a high CVSS score of 7.8, a high FAUCET Risk Score of 86/100, and has garnered significant community discussion and media coverage.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
Range not provided by sourceCPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:visual_studio_code:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

7.8HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
1.8
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
4.58%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
90.7%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-28
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0458 is in the 91st percentile among its peer group of 11,621 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.1 Bluesky, 0.0 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (2)

microsoftpatch availablevia nvd_reference
View patch
microsoftpatch availablevia msrc
Product: Visual Studio Code
View patch

Vendor Advisories (1)

microsoft2020-Oct/CVE-2020-17023Important

Visual Studio JSON Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Oct 13, 2020

References

portal.msrc.microsoft.com / en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2020-17023
PatchVendor Advisory