CVE-2017-3754
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedSome Lenovo brand notebook systems do not have write protections properly configured in the system BIOS. This could enable an attacker with physical or administrative access to a system to be able to flash the BIOS with an arbitrary image and potentially run malicious BIOS code.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceLenovo notebook systems lack proper write protection configuration in the system BIOS, allowing an attacker with physical or administrative access to flash the BIOS with arbitrary images and execute malicious code at the firmware level.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE dataall versionsCVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify if the system is a Lenovo notebookRun 'dmidecode -s system-manufacturer' on Linux or 'systeminfo | findstr /C:"System Manufacturer"' on Windows. Alternatively, check the system model number via 'dmidecode -s system-product-name' or 'systeminfo | findstr /C:"System Model"'.Affected if The system manufacturer is Lenovo or the product name indicates a Lenovo notebook model.
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Verify the BIOS versionRun 'dmidecode -s bios-version' on Linux or 'wmic bios get smbiosbiosversion' on Windows to retrieve the installed BIOS version.Affected if A BIOS version is returned, confirming a Lenovo BIOS is installed.
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Check if BIOS write protection is disabledAccess the BIOS setup utility during boot (press Enter/Delete/F1/F2 as prompted) and navigate to the Security or Advanced menu. Look for 'BIOS Write Protect', 'Flash Write Protection', or 'SMM Write Protection' settings. Check if the protection is disabled or not properly enforced.Affected if The BIOS write protection setting is disabled, not present, or allows flashing without proper enforcement.
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Verify physical access controlsReview physical security controls on the affected system. Check if the device is in a location accessible to unauthorized personnel or if multiple users have administrative access.Affected if The system has multiple users with administrative privileges or is in an area with unrestricted physical access.
A user is affected if they are running a Lenovo notebook with any BIOS version where BIOS write protection is not properly enforced, allowing unauthorized BIOS flashing.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataConfigure BIOS write protection flags and update to a patched BIOS version that properly enforces write protection; restrict physical access to affected systems.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-3754 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-3754 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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