BiosOperating system · Intel

CVE-2019-14557

HIGH · 8.0 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-10-05
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
82/100
Remediation priority · High
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
Buffer overflow in BIOS firmware for 8th, 9th, 10th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM), Intel(R) Celeron(R) Processor 4000 & 5000 Series Processors may allow an authenticated user to potentially enable elevation of privilege or denial of service via adjacent 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

Buffer overflow vulnerability in BIOS firmware affecting 8th, 9th, and 10th Generation Intel Core processors and Celeron 4000/5000 series. An authenticated user with adjacent network or physical access can exploit the overflow to escalate privileges or cause denial of service.

MitigationApply Intel-provided BIOS firmware updates for affected processors. This requires downloading firmware from Intel's support site and flashing the BIOS, typically through vendor tools or in-band update mechanisms.

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
BiosOperating system
Affected:all versions

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
Adjacent
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/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 your Intel processor generation
    Run 'wmic cpu get name,processorid' or check /proc/cpuinfo on Linux to identify the CPU model. Look for 8th, 9th, or 10th Generation Intel Core processors, or Celeron 4000/5000 series.
    Affected if The CPU is an 8th, 9th, or 10th Generation Intel Core or a Celeron 4000/5000 series processor.
  2. Determine BIOS vendor and version
    On Windows, run 'wmic bios get name,version,manufacturer' or check System Information (msinfo32). On Linux, run 'dmidecode -s bios-version' or check /sys/class/dmi/id/bios_version.
    Affected if The system uses Intel BIOS firmware (Intel is the BIOS manufacturer).
  3. Check for Intel Management Engine interface
    On Windows, open Intel Driver & Support Assistant or check Device Manager under System Devices for Intel Management Engine Interface. On Linux, run 'lsmod | grep megasr' or check if /dev/mei exists.
    Affected if Intel Management Engine interface is present and enabled, as this provides the attack vector for adjacent network exploitation.
  4. Verify network-accessible firmware update services
    Check if Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) is enabled in BIOS/UEFI settings, or if Intel vPro/AMT network management features are active. Run 'powercfg /devicequery all_devices' on Windows to list firmware-related devices.
    Affected if Network-accessible Intel firmware services (vPro, AMT, SENTER) are enabled, allowing adjacent network attack vector.

You are affected if your system uses an Intel processor from 8th, 9th, or 10th Generation Core or Celeron 4000/5000 series with Intel BIOS firmware, especially if Intel Management Engine or network-accessible firmware services are enabled.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply Intel-provided BIOS firmware updates for affected processors. This requires downloading firmware from Intel's support site and flashing the BIOS, typically through vendor tools or in-band update mechanisms.

Fix this in Bios Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
36.0 hours of engineering $6,400
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Scan for this in your stack

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dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2019-14557 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