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Mallory
High

RCE via Malicious package.json in Visual Studio Code

IdentifiersCVE-2020-17023CWE-94

CVE-2020-17023 is a remote code execution vulnerability in Visual Studio Code. The vulnerability is triggered when a user opens a malicious 'package.json' file, typically after being tricked into cloning a repository and opening it in VS Code. The vulnerability arises from improper handling of JSON files, allowing attacker-specified code to execute in the context of the current user.

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For your environment

Are you exposed to this one?

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ANALYST BRIEF

Impact, mitigation & remediation

What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.

Impact

What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.

Successful exploitation allows arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the current user. If the user has administrative rights, the attacker can fully compromise the system, including installing programs, modifying or deleting data, and creating new user accounts.

Mitigation

If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.

Users should avoid opening untrusted repositories or 'package.json' files in Visual Studio Code, especially from unknown or suspicious sources, until the patch is applied.

Remediation

Patch, then assume compromise.

Apply the security update provided by Microsoft for Visual Studio Code, which modifies the way JSON files are handled to prevent code execution from malicious 'package.json' files.
PUBLIC EXPLOITS

Exploits

No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.

VALID 0 / 0 TOTALView more in app

No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.

EXPOSURE SURFACE

Affected products & vendors

Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.

VendorProductType
Microsoft CorporationVisual Studio Codeapplication

Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.

What this page doesn’t show

The version that knows your environment.

This page is what’s public. Mallory adds the parts that aren’t: which of your assets are affected, which adversaries are exploiting it right now, which detections to deploy, and what to do tonight.
Exposure mapping

Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.

Threat actor evidence

Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.

Associated malware

Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.

Detection signatures

YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.

Vendor-by-vendor mapping

Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.

Social activity

Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.