CVE-2026-20901
Received Received - Intake

Privilege Escalation in Intel Xeon Processor Firmware

Publication date: 2026-08-11

Last updated on: 2026-08-11

Assigner: Intel Corporation

Description
Improper input validation for some Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors within firmware may allow an escalation of privilege. Startup code and smm adversary with a privileged user combined with a high complexity attack may enable data alteration. This result may potentially occur via local access when attack requirements are present without special internal knowledge and requires no user interaction. The potential vulnerability may impact the confidentiality (none), integrity (none) and availability (none) of the vulnerable system, resulting in subsequent system confidentiality (none), integrity (high) and availability (none) impacts.

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Meta Information

Published
2026-08-11
Last Modified
2026-08-11
Generated
2026-08-11
AI Q&A
2026-08-11
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2026-20901
EUVD
EUVD-2026-56788

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
intel xeon *

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-20 The product receives input or data, but it does not validate or incorrectly validates that the input has the properties that are required to process the data safely and correctly.

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Executive Summary

This vulnerability involves improper input validation in Intel Xeon processors' firmware, allowing privilege escalation. An attacker with local access and privileged user rights could exploit it through a high-complexity attack without special internal knowledge or user interaction.

Detection Guidance

Detection requires checking Intel Xeon processor firmware versions and validating against Intel's advisory for this CVE. No specific commands are provided in the context. Contact Intel support or use their firmware update tools for detection.

Impact Analysis

The vulnerability may lead to data alteration on the system. While confidentiality and availability remain unaffected, integrity is compromised with high impact, potentially allowing unauthorized changes to system data.

Mitigation Strategies

Apply firmware updates from Intel as soon as they are available. Monitor Intel's security advisories for patches. Ensure physical and logical access controls are in place to limit privileged user access.

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