CVE-2020-9667
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 · uneditedAdobe Genuine Service version 6.6 (and earlier) is affected by an Uncontrolled Search Path element vulnerability. An authenticated attacker with admin privileges could plant custom binaries and execute them with System permissions. Exploitation of this issue requires user interaction.
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 confidenceAdobe Genuine Service versions 6.6 and earlier contain an uncontrolled search path vulnerability allowing an authenticated attacker with admin privileges to plant custom malicious binaries in application search paths and execute them with System-level permissions, achieving 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<= 6.6CVSS 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
- High
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/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 Adobe Genuine Service is installedCheck for Adobe Genuine Service in the list of installed programs via Windows Registry at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ or look for the service named 'Adobe Genuine Service' in services.mscAffected if Adobe Genuine Service appears in installed programs or as a running service
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Retrieve the installed version of Adobe Genuine ServiceOpen Windows Registry and navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Genuine Service (or the uninstall key mentioned above) and locate the Version or DisplayVersion string valueAffected if The version string returned is 6.6 or lower (e.g., 6.6, 6.5, 6.0, etc.)
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Confirm the version falls within the affected rangeCompare the retrieved version number against the affected range: any version <= 6.6 is vulnerableAffected if The installed version is 6.6 or any earlier version number
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Determine if the current user has administrator privilegesRun 'whoami /groups' from command prompt and look for 'BUILTIN\Administrators' or check if the user account is a member of the Administrators groupAffected if The current user has admin/administrator-level privileges on the system
The system is affected if Adobe Genuine Service version 6.6 or earlier is installed AND the user has administrator privileges, allowing privilege escalation via malicious binaries in the application search path.
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 dataUpdate Adobe Genuine Service to the latest patched version and restrict admin privileges following the principle of least privilege to limit the attack surface.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,744.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-9667 — 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-2020-9667 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data