CVE-2021-1680
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 · uneditedDiagnostics Hub Standard Collector Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability
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 · moderate confidenceCVE-2021-1680 is a local privilege escalation vulnerability in the Windows Diagnostics Hub Standard Collector service. The vulnerability allows an authenticated attacker with limited privileges to gain elevated (SYSTEM) access by exploiting improper privilege management within the diagnostic collection service.
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= 2015>= 15.0, <= 15.8>= 16.0, <= 16.7.0= 16.8all versions= 20h2= 1607= 1803= 1809= 1909= 2004all versions= 20h2= 1909= 2004all versionsCVSS 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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Check if Diagnostics Hub Standard Collector service is presentOpen Services.msc or run 'Get-Service -Name DiagHub' in PowerShell to list the Diagnostics Hub Standard Collector serviceAffected if The service exists and is running on the system (this is the attack surface for the vulnerability)
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Identify installed Windows versionRun 'winver' or 'systeminfo | findstr /B /C:"OS Name" /C:"OS Version"' to determine the exact Windows versionAffected if Version matches any of: Windows 10 (all versions, specifically 20h2, 1607, 1803, 1809, 1909, 2004) or Windows Server 2016/2019 (all versions, specifically 20h2, 1909, 2004)
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Check if Visual Studio with Diagnostics Hub is installedCheck installed programs for Visual Studio 2015, 2017 (15.0-15.8), or 2019 (16.0-16.7.0, 16.8) via 'Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Select DisplayName, DisplayVersion'Affected if Visual Studio versions listed above are installed alongside the vulnerable Windows versions
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Verify security update KB5001402 or later is installedRun 'Get-HotFix | Where-Object {$_.HotFixID -eq "KB5001402"}' or check Windows Update history for the CVE-2021-1680 related patchAffected if The security update for CVE-2021-1680 is NOT installed (system is unpatched)
A system is affected if it runs a vulnerable Windows version (10 1803-20h2 or Server 2016/2019) with the Diagnostics Hub Standard Collector service enabled AND lacks the KB5001402 security patch.
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 the Microsoft security update for CVE-2021-1680 via Windows Update or deploy the standalone patch to affected Windows systems.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 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 $1,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-1680 — 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-2021-1680 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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