CVE-2020-6021
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 · uneditedCheck Point Endpoint Security Client for Windows before version E84.20 allows write access to the directory from which the installation repair takes place. Since the MS Installer allows regular users to run the repair, an attacker can initiate the installation repair and place a specially crafted DLL in the repair folder which will run with the Endpoint client’s privileges.
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 confidenceCheck Point Endpoint Security Client for Windows before E84.20 allows regular users to initiate installation repair, which writes to a predictable directory. An attacker can place a malicious DLL in this repair directory that gets loaded with the Endpoint client's elevated privileges, achieving local privilege escalation.
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< e84.20CVSS 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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Confirm Check Point Endpoint Security Client is installedOpen Windows Control Panel > Programs and Features, or run 'Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Where-Object {$_.DisplayName -like "*Checkpoint*Endpoint*"}' via PowerShellAffected if Check Point Endpoint Security Client appears in installed programs or registry results
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Identify installed client versionIn Programs and Features, click on Check Point Endpoint Security to view version, or run 'Get-ItemProperty "C:\Program Files\Checkpoint\Endpoint Security\bin\CpEndpointService.exe" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object -ExpandProperty VersionInfo'Affected if The displayed version is lower than E84.20 (e.g., E84.10, E83.x, etc.)
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Check if repair feature is accessible to regular usersAttempt to run repair via the client UI as a non-admin user, or check if the 'repair' option is available without elevation in C:\Program Files\Checkpoint\Endpoint Security\ or through registry at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Checkpoint\Endpoint SecurityAffected if A standard user can initiate repair or access repair-related registry entries without UAC prompt
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Verify predictable repair directory permissionsCheck directory permissions on C:\ProgramData\Checkpoint\Endpoint Security\repair or similar repair directories by running 'icacls "C:\ProgramData\Checkpoint\Endpoint Security\repair"' or checking the actual repair path used by the clientAffected if Regular users have write permissions to the repair directory where DLL files are placed
You are affected if Check Point Endpoint Security Client for Windows is installed with a version before E84.20 and regular users can access or trigger the repair function that writes to a writable directory.
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 dataUpgrade Check Point Endpoint Security Client for Windows to version E84.20 or later, which addresses the improper directory access during repair operations.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-6021 — 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-2020-6021 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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