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Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime

CVE-2020-16949

Severity Medium
Score 4.7/10

Summary

<p>A denial of service vulnerability exists in Microsoft Outlook software when the software fails to properly handle objects in memory. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could cause a remote denial of service against a system.</p> <p>Exploitation of the vulnerability requires that a specially crafted email be sent to a vulnerable Outlook server.</p> <p>The security update addresses the vulnerability by correcting how Microsoft Outlook handles objects in memory.</p>

  • HIGH
  • LOCAL
  • NONE
  • UNCHANGED
  • NONE
  • LOW
  • NONE
  • HIGH

CWE-401 - Missing release of memory after effective lifetime (memory leak)

'Missing release of memory after effective lifetime (memory leak)' is a weakness that occurs when software doesn't effectively release allocated memory after it is used. If not addressed, this enables attackers to launch denial of service attacks (by crashing or hanging the program) or take advantage of other unexpected behavior resulting from low memory conditions.

References

Advisory Timeline

  • Published