Description of the security update for the elevation of privilege vulnerability in Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 Update 3: April 14, 2020

Applies to: All Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 editions except Build Tools

NoticeIn November 2020, the content of this article was updated to clarify the affected products, prerequisites, and restart requirements. Additionally, the update metadata in WSUS was revised to fix a Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager reporting bug.

Summary

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists if Microsoft Visual Studio updater service incorrectly handles file permissions, or the Visual Studio Extension Installer Service incorrectly handles file operations.To learn more about the vulnerability, go to CVE-2020-0900.

How to obtain and install the update

Visual Studio 2015 Update 3

Method 1: Microsoft Download

The following file is available for download:Download the hotfix package now.

Method 2: Microsoft Update Catalog

To get the standalone package for this update, go to the Microsoft Update Catalog website.

More information

Prerequisites

To apply this security update, you must have both Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 and the subsequent Cumulative Servicing Release KB 3165756 installed. Typically, KB 3165756 is installed automatically when you install Visual Studio 2015 Update 3. However, in some cases, you have to install the two packages separately.

Restart requirement

We recommend that you close Visual Studio 2015 before you install this security update. Otherwise, you may have to restart the computer after you apply this security update if a file that is being updated is open or in use by Visual Studio.

Security update replacement information

This security update doesn’t replace other security updates.

File hash information

File name	SHA1 hash	SHA256 hash
vs14-kb4540102.exe	E6AF278D8C48BD6FB68488B9ADDAE4E41BB3BCD1	6E2CFDDE06E96873900B56F3231F836FE0879CDBD3C4FF6527D34B72A9DACCBA

Installation verification

To verify that this security update was applied correctly, follow these steps:

1. Open the Visual Studio 2015 folder, and navigate to the following subfolder:

Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies

2. Locate and open the following file:

Microsoft.VisualStudio.RemoteControl.dll

3. Verify that the file version is 14.0.248.50130.

Information about protection, security, and support

• Protect yourself online: Windows Security support

• Learn how we guard against cyber threats: Microsoft Security

• Obtain localized support per your country: International Support

• Get more information about the Visual Studio support policy: Visual Studio Product Lifecycle and Servicing.