CVE-2020-11520
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedThe SDDisk2k.sys driver of WinMagic SecureDoc v8.5 and earlier allows local users to write to arbitrary kernel memory addresses because the IOCTL dispatcher lacks pointer validation. Exploiting this vulnerability results in privileged code execution.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThe SDDisk2k.sys kernel driver in WinMagic SecureDoc v8.5 and earlier contains a missing pointer validation vulnerability in its IOCTL dispatcher. This allows local authenticated users to send specially crafted IOCTL requests that bypass validation checks, enabling write access to arbitrary kernel memory addresses and resulting in local privilege escalation to kernel/ SYSTEM level.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 8.5CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify SecureDoc installationCheck for WinMagic SecureDoc in installed programs via Registry (HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall) or by querying wmic product get name,versionAffected if SecureDoc is not installed on the system
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Confirm SecureDoc versionQuery the installed version of WinMagic SecureDoc (via registry or 'wmic product where "name like '%SecureDoc%'" get version') and compare to the affected range (<=8.5)Affected if The installed version is 8.5 or earlier
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Locate SDDisk2k.sys driver fileSearch for SDDisk2k.sys on the system (typical paths: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\ or the SecureDoc installation directory)Affected if The driver file SDDisk2k.sys exists on the system
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Check if driver is loadedRun 'sc query SDDisk2k' or check driver loaded status via 'driverquery /v | findstr SDDisk2k'Affected if The SDDisk2k driver service exists and shows as running or stopped (loaded)
The system is affected if WinMagic SecureDoc version 8.5 or earlier is installed and the SDDisk2k.sys driver is present on the system.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataApply vendor-supplied patches for SecureDoc v8.5 or later. If patches are unavailable, consider disabling or removing the vulnerable SDDisk2k.sys driver until a fix can be deployed, as the driver is loaded at boot and exposes this attack surface to all local users.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-11520 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-11520 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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