dbcve.org
Active Management Technology FirmwareOperating system · Intel

CVE-2020-0538

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-06-15
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 11.8.77 / 11.12.77 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
Improper input validation in subsystem for Intel(R) AMT versions before 11.8.77, 11.12.77, 11.22.77 and 12.0.64 may allow an unauthenticated user to potentially enable denial of service via network 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 · high confidence

Improper input validation in the Intel Active Management Technology (AMT) subsystem allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to potentially cause denial of service via specially crafted network requests. This affects versions prior to 11.8.77, 11.12.77, 11.22.77, and 12.0.64.

MitigationUpdate Intel AMT firmware to version 11.8.77 or higher for 11.x releases, or 12.0.64 or higher for 12.x releases. For systems that cannot be updated, consider network segmentation to limit exposure of the AMT interface.

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
Active Management Technology FirmwareOperating system
Affected:>= 11.0, < 11.8.77>= 11.10, < 11.12.77>= 11.20, < 11.22.77>= 12.0, < 12.0.64

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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. Confirm Intel AMT is present
    Check if Intel Active Management Technology is available on the system. On Windows, open Device Manager and look for 'Intel Management Engine Interface' under System devices, or use 'wmic baseboard get product,manufacturer' to identify supported hardware. On Linux, check for /dev/mei0 or run 'dmesg | grep -i mei' to see if the Management Engine Interface is detected.
    Affected if Intel AMT hardware and firmware are not present on the system, so the vulnerability does not apply.
  2. Retrieve AMT firmware version
    Access the AMT firmware version through the local web interface at https://localhost:16992 or https://localhost:16993 (if AMT is locally provisioned), or use Intel's System Support Utility (SSU) to scan hardware. Alternatively, on Windows run 'wmic /namespace:\\root\cimv2 path Win32_ComputerSystem get Manufacturer,Model' combined with Intel MEInfo or Intel AMT SDK tools to query the firmware version.
    Affected if The version cannot be retrieved, indicating AMT may not be properly initialized or provisioned.
  3. Compare version against affected ranges
    Check the installed AMT firmware version against these vulnerable ranges: 11.0 to 11.8.76, 11.10 to 11.12.76, 11.20 to 11.22.76, and 12.0 to 12.0.63. Any version matching these ranges is affected. Versions 11.8.77+, 11.12.77+, 11.22.77+, and 12.0.64+ are patched.
    Affected if The installed version falls within any of the affected version ranges listed in the CVE.
  4. Verify AMT network exposure
    Check if the AMT management ports (16992/HTTP and 16993/HTTPS) are listening and accessible on the network. Run 'netstat -an | findstr 1699' on Windows or 'ss -tlnp | grep 1699' on Linux to see if these ports are bound to network interfaces. Confirm whether these ports are exposed externally or only to internal networks.
    Affected if AMT ports are accessible from untrusted networks, making the denial of service vulnerability exploitable remotely.

If Intel AMT firmware is present and its version falls within 11.0-11.8.76, 11.10-11.12.76, 11.20-11.22.76, or 12.0-12.0.63 with network exposure, the system is affected by this CVE.

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 11.8.77 / 11.12.77 / 11.22.77 or later
Fixed in 11.8.7711.12.7711.22.77
Interim mitigation

Update Intel AMT firmware to version 11.8.77 or higher for 11.x releases, or 12.0.64 or higher for 12.x releases. For systems that cannot be updated, consider network segmentation to limit exposure of the AMT interface.

Fix this in Active Management Technology Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
17.0 hours of engineering $3,000
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,800.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-0538 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2020-0538 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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