CVE-2020-13770
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 · uneditedSeveral services are accessing named pipes in Ivanti Endpoint Manager through 2020.1.1 with default or overly permissive security attributes; as these services run as user ‘NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM’, the issue can be used to escalate privileges from a local standard or service account having SeImpersonatePrivilege (eg. user ‘NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE’).
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 confidenceIvanti Endpoint Manager services access named pipes with default or overly permissive security attributes, and run as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM. A local standard or service account with SeImpersonatePrivilege (such as NETWORK SERVICE) can impersonate the SYSTEM token through these improperly secured named pipes to escalate privileges to full system-level access.
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<= 2020.1.1CVSS 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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Identify if Ivanti Endpoint Manager is installedCheck the Windows registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for an entry named 'Ivanti Endpoint Manager' or inspect Program Files for the 'Ivanti' folderAffected if The product is present on the system
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Confirm the installed version numberLocate the version in the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{DisplayName} or check the 'About' dialog within the Ivanti Endpoint Manager client consoleAffected if The version is 2020.1.1 or any version lower than 2020.1.1
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Verify the Ivanti Endpoint Manager service runs as SYSTEMOpen Services, locate the 'Ivanti Endpoint Manager' or 'LDMain' service, right-click and select Properties, then check the 'Log On' account fieldAffected if The service is configured to log on as 'NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM' or a similar elevated account
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Check for SeImpersonatePrivilege on the attacker accountOpen Local Security Policy (secpol.msc) -> Local Policies -> User Rights Assignment, locate 'Impersonate a client after authentication', and verify if standard service accounts like NETWORK SERVICE or local users with service account privileges are listedAffected if A standard or service account with SeImpersonatePrivilege exists on the system that could exploit the named pipe
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Inspect named pipe security attributes (requires elevated privileges)Use a tool like pipeacls or accesschk from Sysinternals to examine the security descriptor of named pipes created by Ivanti Endpoint Manager services (typically found under \pipe\ or \Device\NamedPipe\)Affected if The named pipes allow weak or default ACLs that permit impersonation by non-privileged callers
If Ivanti Endpoint Manager version 2020.1.1 or lower is installed, runs as SYSTEM, and the system contains accounts with SeImpersonatePrivilege, the environment is vulnerable to local privilege escalation via the improperly secured named pipes.
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 patches for Ivanti Endpoint Manager 2020.1.1 or later versions that address the named pipe security attribute configuration; alternatively, restrict SeImpersonatePrivilege assignment to minimize the attack surface pending patch deployment.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,120.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-13770 — 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-2020-13770 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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