How severe is CVE-2020-1020?

CVE-2020-1020 has a CVSS score of 8.8/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which products are affected by CVE-2020-1020?

CVE-2020-1020 affects the following products: microsoft windows 7, microsoft windows 8.1, microsoft windows 10 1507, microsoft windows 10 1607, microsoft windows 10 1709, microsoft windows 10 1803, microsoft windows 10 1809, microsoft windows 10 1903, and 8 more.

How do I patch CVE-2020-1020?

No patch has shipped for CVE-2020-1020 yet — track the microsoft windows 7 advisory for a fixed release and apply the workarounds below in the meantime.

How do I detect CVE-2020-1020 across my infrastructure?

Inventory every microsoft windows 7 deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above.

How do I mitigate CVE-2020-1020 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Stop feeding it untrusted input: reject or quarantine files and payloads from unverified sources until you can upgrade, restrict accepted formats to the ones you actually need, and run the parsing or decoding step in a least-privileged sandbox or short-lived worker so a crash or corrupted read cannot reach the rest of the process. Alongside that, restrict the management interface to trusted networks and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations.

Is CVE-2020-1020 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 7 known exploit references for CVE-2020-1020, including 6 in-the-wild exploitations observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2020-1020?

CVE-2020-1020 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 65.0%, placing it in the 99th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A score above 50% indicates significantly elevated exploitation risk — immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Is CVE-2020-1020 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2020-1020 (Microsoft Windows Adobe Font Manager Library Remote Code Execution Vulnerability) was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 2021-11-03. CISA required all US federal civilian agencies to remediate this vulnerability by 2022-05-03. The required action was: Apply updates per vendor instructions. Being listed in the KEV catalog is the strongest possible confirmation of active exploitation — treat this as a critical priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2020-1020?

CVE-2020-1020 is classified as Out-of-bounds Write (CWE-787). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

Which products and versions are affected by CVE-2020-1020?

CVE-2020-1020 affects microsoft windows 7; microsoft windows 8.1; microsoft windows 10 1507; microsoft windows 10 1607, and 12 more product(s). Check the affected-products list on this page against your deployed version to confirm exposure.

When was CVE-2020-1020 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2020-1020 was published on April 15, 2020 and was last updated on June 17, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🛡️

CISA KEV · ACTIVELY EXPLOITED

HIGH severity

CVE-2020-1020 — Windows 7

HIGH

CVE-2020-1020 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.8) Out-of-bounds Write vulnerability in microsoft windows 7. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.

A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Microsoft Windows when the Windows Adobe Type Manager Library improperly handles a specially-crafted multi-master font - Adobe Type 1…

Published

Apr 15, 2020

Updated

Jun 17, 2026

Affected

16 products

Patched

See advisory

Exploits

7 known

Exploitation data as of Oct 23, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, CISA KEV, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

Actively exploited in the wild

Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2021-11-03. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-05-03.
A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.

Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2020-1020.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

65.0%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

High Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs99th percentile — riskier than 99% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2020-1020 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 395,249 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 50–90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Description

A remote code execution vulnerability exists in Microsoft Windows when the Windows Adobe Type Manager Library improperly handles a specially-crafted multi-master font - Adobe Type 1 PostScript format.For all systems except Windows 10, an attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could execute code remotely, aka 'Adobe Font Manager Library Remote Code Execution Vulnerability'. This CVE ID is unique from CVE-2020-0938.

Affected Products

16 products · 28 configurations

windows 7microsoft

all

windows 8.1microsoft

all

windows 10 1507microsoft

all

windows 10 1607microsoft

all

windows 10 1709microsoft

all

windows 10 1803microsoft

all

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.