Detections
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CVE-2020-0601

high

Description

A spoofing vulnerability exists in the way Windows CryptoAPI (Crypt32.dll) validates Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) certificates.An attacker could exploit the vulnerability by using a spoofed code-signing certificate to sign a malicious executable, making it appear the file was from a trusted, legitimate source, aka 'Windows CryptoAPI Spoofing Vulnerability'.

From the Tenable Blog

CVE-2020-0601: NSA Reported Spoofing Vulnerability in Windows CryptoAPI
CVE-2020-0601: NSA Reported Spoofing Vulnerability in Windows CryptoAPI

Published: 2020-01-14

Microsoft kicks off the first Patch Tuesday of 2020 with the disclosure of CVE-2020-0601, a highly critical flaw in the cryptographic library for Windows. UPDATE 01/16/2020: This blog post has been updated to reflect the availability of proof-of-concept code for CVE-2020-0601, which is being referred to as CurveBall or Chain of Fools.

References

http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/155961/CurveBall-Microsoft-Windows-CryptoAPI-Spoofing-Proof-Of-Concept.html

http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/155960/CurveBall-Microsoft-Windows-CryptoAPI-Spoofing-Proof-Of-Concept.html

https://media.defense.gov/2020/Oct/20/2002519884/-1/-1/0/CSA_CHINESE_EXPLOIT_VULNERABILITIES_UOO179811.PDF

https://www.tenable.com/cyber-exposure/2020-threat-landscape-retrospective

https://media.defense.gov/2020/Jan/14/2002234275/-1/-1/0/CSA-WINDOWS-10-CRYPT-LIB-20190114.PDF

https://www.tenable.com/blog/government-agencies-warn-of-state-sponsored-actors-exploiting-publicly-known-vulnerabilities

https://www.tenable.com/blog/cve-2020-0601-nsa-reported-spoofing-vulnerability-in-windows-cryptoapi

https://www.tenable.com/blog/microsoft-s-january-2020-patch-tuesday-kicks-off-the-new-year-with-49-new-cves

https://github.com/nichxlxs/cve-research

https://github.com/b4nxzz/CVEs

https://github.com/AndreLlorente/NVD_CVE_EXTRACTOR

https://github.com/ShayNehmad/twoplustwo

https://github.com/bsides-rijeka/meetup-2-curveball

https://github.com/eastmountyxz/CSDNBlog-Security-Based

https://github.com/eastmountyxz/CVE-2018-20250-WinRAR

https://github.com/eastmountyxz/CVE-2020-0601-EXP

https://github.com/talbeerysec/CurveBallDetection

https://github.com/gentilkiwi/curveball

https://github.com/dlee35/curveball_lua

https://github.com/thimelp/cve-2020-0601-Perl

https://github.com/Doug-Moody/Windows10_Cumulative_Updates_PowerShell

https://github.com/0xxon/cve-2020-0601-utils

https://github.com/0xxon/cve-2020-0601-plugin

https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-0601

https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2020-0601

Details

Source: Mitre, NVD

Published: 2020-01-14

Updated: 2026-06-17

Named Vulnerability: CurveBallNamed Vulnerability: ChainOfFoolsNamed Vulnerability: Chain of FoolsNamed Vulnerability: CURVEBALLKnown Exploited Vulnerability (KEV)

Risk Information

CVSS v2

Base Score: 5.8

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N

Severity: Medium

CVSS v3

Base Score: 8.1

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

Severity: High

EPSS

EPSS: 0.89436