Vulnerability record · CVE-2020-5180 · published 14 January 2020
CVE-2020-5180: Sparklabs viscosity vulnerability
Sparklabs · Viscosity
Viscosity 1.8.2 on Windows and macOS allows an unprivileged user to set a subset of OpenVPN parameters, which can be used to load a malicious library into the memory of the OpenVPN process, leading to limited local privilege escalation. (When a VPN connection is initiated using a TLS/SSL client profile, the privileges are dropped, and the library will be loaded, resulting in arbitrary code execution as a user with limited privileges. This greatly reduces the impact of the vulnerability.)
Description
Viscosity 1.8.2 on Windows and macOS allows an unprivileged user to set a subset of OpenVPN parameters, which can be used to load a malicious library into the memory of the OpenVPN process, leading to limited local privilege escalation. (When a VPN connection is initiated using a TLS/SSL client profile, the privileges are dropped, and the library will be loaded, resulting in arbitrary code execution as a user with limited privileges. This greatly reduces the impact of the vulnerability.)
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Affected products
1 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.
References
| Link | Tags |
|---|---|
| https://www.sparklabs.com/blog/viscosity-for-mac-windows-version-1-8-4/ | Release NotesVendor Advisory |
| https://www.sparklabs.com/blog/viscosity-for-mac-windows-version-1-8-4/ | Release NotesVendor Advisory |
Track CVE-2020-5180 inside VULONE
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Related vulnerabilities
Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2020-5180), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-27). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.
