CVE-2020-0526
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 · uneditedImproper input validation in firmware for Intel(R) NUC may allow a privileged user to potentially enable escalation of privilege via local access. The list of affected products is provided in intel-sa-00343: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/advisory/intel-sa-00343.html
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 confidenceImproper input validation in Intel NUC firmware allows a privileged local user to escalate privileges. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of input data in the firmware, which can be exploited by an attacker with local access and existing privileged credentials to gain higher-level system privileges.
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= becfl357.86a.0077= becfl357.86a.0077= hnkbli70.86a.0059= hnkbli70.86a.0059= inwhl357.0036= inwhl357.0036= inwhl357.0036= chaplcel.0047CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the exact NUC model numberCheck the product label on the device chassis or run system information commands (such as 'dmidecode -s system-product-name' on Linux or check System Information on Windows)Affected if The model matches one of the affected products: Nuc8i7bek, Nuc8i7bekqa, Nuc8i7hnk, Nuc8i7hnkqc, Nuc8i7inh, Nuc8i5inh, or Nuc8cchkr
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Locate the firmware versionAccess the BIOS/UEFI setup by pressing F2 during boot, or use Intel's firmware update utility if installed, or check via system firmware information in the operating systemAffected if A firmware version is displayed on the main BIOS screen or via firmware update tool
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Compare installed firmware version to affected versionsMatch the displayed firmware version string against the specific version numbers: becfl357.86a.0077 (for Nuc8i7bek/Nuc8i7bekqa), hnkbli70.86a.0059 (for Nuc8i7hnk/Nuc8i7hnkqc), inwhl357.0036 (for Nuc8i7inh/Nuc8i5inh), or chaplcel.0047 (for Nuc8cchkr)Affected if The installed firmware version exactly matches one of the four version strings listed as affected
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Verify physical and local access conditionsDetermine whether untrusted local users have physical access to the system and whether any local user accounts with elevated privileges existAffected if The system has physical accessibility by untrusted individuals and contains user accounts with administrative or root-level permissions
The system is affected if it is one of the listed NUC models AND the currently installed firmware version exactly matches the affected version string for that model, and physical access by untrusted users is possible.
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 firmware update from Intel's advisory (intel-sa-00343) for the specific NUC product model. Verify the firmware version after update and ensure only trusted local users have physical access to the system.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing3.0 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 $4,880.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-0526 — 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-2020-0526 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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