CVE-2026-20769

Analyzed Analyzed - Analysis Complete

Denial of Service in Intel NPU Driver

Publication date: 2026-08-11

Last updated on: 2026-08-31

Assigner: Intel Corporation

Description

Improper conditions check for the Intel(R) NPU Driver for all versions within Ring 3: User Applications may allow a denial of service. Unprivileged software adversary with an authenticated user combined with a low complexity attack may enable denial of service. This result may potentially occur via local access when attack requirements are not present without special internal knowledge and requires no user interaction. The potential vulnerability may impact the confidentiality (none), integrity (low) and availability (high) of the vulnerable system, resulting in subsequent system confidentiality (none), integrity (none) and availability (none) impacts.

CVSS Scores

EPSS Scores

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Meta Information

Published

2026-08-11

Last Modified

2026-08-31

Generated

2026-09-01

AI Q&A

2026-08-12

EPSS Evaluated

2026-08-30

NVD

CVE-2026-20769

EUVD

EUVD-2026-56492

Affected Vendors & Products

Vendor	Product	Version / Range
intel	neural_processing_unit_driver	to 1.32.0 (exc)
intel	neural_processing_unit_driver	to 32.0.100.4723 (exc)

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE

KEV

CWE ID	Description
CWE-754	The product does not check or incorrectly checks for unusual or exceptional conditions that are not expected to occur frequently during day to day operation of the product.

Attack-Flow Graph

Executive Summary

This is a denial of service vulnerability in the Intel NPU Driver. It allows an unprivileged attacker with authenticated access to cause a system crash or disruption. The attack requires low complexity and no special knowledge or user interaction.

Detection Guidance

This vulnerability involves improper conditions in the Intel NPU Driver. Detection requires checking for driver versions and potential denial-of-service conditions. Use system commands like 'driverquery' on Windows or 'lsmod' on Linux to inspect loaded drivers. Monitor for unusual system behavior or crashes.

Impact Analysis

An attacker could exploit this to make your system unresponsive or crash, leading to loss of availability. It does not directly expose data but may disrupt normal operations.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability primarily impacts availability, which may violate availability requirements in GDPR and HIPAA. However, it does not directly affect confidentiality or integrity, so compliance impact may be limited unless availability is a critical requirement.

Mitigation Strategies

Update the Intel NPU Driver to the latest version provided by Intel. Disable or restrict unprivileged user access to the driver if possible. Apply system hardening measures to reduce attack surface. Monitor for signs of exploitation or unusual activity.

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