Converged Security Management Engine FirmwareOperating system · Intel

CVE-2019-11108

MEDIUM · 6.7 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-12-18
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 12.0.45 / 13.0.10 or later.
See remediation →
69/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click

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 · unedited
Insufficient input validation in subsystem for Intel(R) CSME before versions 12.0.45 and 13.0.10 may allow a privileged user to potentially enable escalation of privilege via local access.

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 confidence

Insufficient input validation in a subsystem of the Intel Converged Security and Manageability Engine (CSME) firmware allows a privileged local user to potentially escalate privileges. This is a firmware-level vulnerability in Intel's management engine that runs below the operating system, affecting versions prior to 12.0.45 and 13.0.10.

MitigationApply Intel CSME firmware updates to versions 12.0.45/13.0.10 or later via Intel's firmware update utilities or BIOS/UEFI updates from the system manufacturer.

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 data
Converged Security Management Engine FirmwareOperating system
Affected:>= 12.0, < 12.0.45>= 13.0, < 13.0.10

CVSS 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:3.1/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify CSME firmware version
    Use Intel System Diagnostics, Intel Management Engine Interface (MEI) tools, or check system BIOS/UEFI information to retrieve the Converged Security and Management Engine firmware version installed on the system
    Affected if The installed version is any build prior to 12.0.45 for the 12.x branch or prior to 13.0.10 for the 13.x branch
  2. Confirm CSME is enabled and operational
    Verify that the Intel Management Engine Interface (MEI) driver is loaded and the CSME subsystem is active on the system. On Windows, check Device Manager for Intel Management Engine components; on Linux, check /dev/mei or use meinfo tool if available
    Affected if CSME is enabled and running, and the firmware version falls within the affected ranges
  3. Determine if local privileged access exists
    Assess whether the user checking this vulnerability has privileged local access (administrator/root or equivalent) on the operating system, as the CVE specifies a privileged local user is required for exploitation
    Affected if A privileged local user account exists on the system and the CSME firmware version is in the vulnerable range

The system is affected if the Intel CSME firmware version is 12.0.x where x < 45, or 13.0.x where x < 10, and the CSME subsystem is active on the machine.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 12.0.45 / 13.0.10 or later
Fixed in 12.0.4513.0.10
Interim mitigation

Apply Intel CSME firmware updates to versions 12.0.45/13.0.10 or later via Intel's firmware update utilities or BIOS/UEFI updates from the system manufacturer.

Fix this in Converged Security Management Engine Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,780
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,848.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-11108 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-11108 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data