CVE-2018-13787
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 · uneditedCertain Supermicro X11S, X10, X9, X8SI, K1SP, C9X299, C7, B1, A2, and A1 products have a misconfigured Descriptor Region, allowing OS programs to modify firmware.
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 · moderate confidenceThe SPI flash descriptor region on affected Supermicro motherboards is misconfigured, allowing operating system programs to modify firmware regions that should be protected. The descriptor normally enforces access control between the CPU, Intel Management Engine (ME), and flash memory; the misconfiguration bypasses these protections.
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 versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall 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 the exact Supermicro motherboard modelRun command 'dmidecode -t baseboard' or check the physical motherboard label to confirm the model numberAffected if The model matches one of the following: X11ssz, X11ssv, X11ssql, X11ssq, X11ssn, X11srm, X11sra, or X11sba
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Confirm the firmware version installedRun command 'dmidecode -s bios-version' or access the UEFI/BIOS setup menu to view the current firmware versionAffected if Any firmware version is installed on an affected motherboard model (all versions are affected)
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Inspect the SPI flash descriptor configurationUse a tool capable of reading the SPI flash descriptor, such as 'flashrom -r descriptor.bin --verbose' or Intel Flash Descriptor Tool (IFDT) to dump and analyze the flash descriptor regionAffected if The descriptor shows the BIOS region is not set to read-only or the ME region permissions allow writes from the CPU/OS
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Verify flash region write protection statusRead the Flash Descriptor Security Registers (FDSRs) or use 'intelmetool' if available to check ME region permissionsAffected if The ME or BIOS regions show write (RW) permissions enabled for the CPU master rather than being restricted to ME-only access
A user is affected if they are running any firmware version on a Supermicro X11ssz, X11ssv, X11ssql, X11ssq, X11ssn, X11srm, X11sra, or X11sba motherboard and the SPI flash descriptor allows write access from the OS to protected firmware regions.
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 dataApply the vendor-supplied BIOS/UEFI firmware update that corrects the descriptor region configuration. Verify the update through the vendor's security advisory.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,120.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-13787 — 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-2018-13787 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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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