CVE-2020-12337
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 buffer restrictions in firmware for some Intel(R) NUCs 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 confidenceImproper buffer restrictions in Intel NUC firmware allow a privileged local user to escalate privileges. This is a firmware-level buffer overflow or similar vulnerability that enables an authenticated user with existing privileges to gain higher-level access on the affected system.
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= inwhl357.0036= inwhl357.0036= inwhl357.0036= inwhl357.0036= pnwhl357.0037= pnwhl357.0037= pnwhl357.0037= pnwhl357.0037CVSS 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 Intel NUC modelCheck the product label on the device or use the system information utility (such as Intel NUC Product Finder, dmidecode, or system BIOS information screen) to determine the exact NUC model number (e.g., Nuc8i5inh, Nuc8i7inh, Nuc8i3pnb, Nuc8i3pnh, Nuc8i3pnk)Affected if Model is one of: Nuc8i5inh, Nuc8i7inh, Nuc8i3pnb, Nuc8i3pnh, or Nuc8i3pnk
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Check installed firmware versionAccess the BIOS/UEFI setup by pressing F2 during boot, or use Intel Firmware Update Utility (Firmware Update) from within the operating system. Navigate to the BIOS version information page to read the current firmware version stringAffected if Firmware version matches exactly: inwhl357.0036 (for Nuc8i5inh or Nuc8i7inh models) or pnwhl357.0037 (for Nuc8i3pnb, Nuc8i3pnh, or Nuc8i3pnk models)
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Verify local privileged access existsConfirm the presence of a local user account with administrative or root privileges on the system (check user accounts via 'net user' on Windows or 'cat /etc/passwd' on Linux)Affected if A local privileged user account exists on the system (this condition is required for the privilege escalation to be exploitable)
The system is affected if it is an Intel NUC 8 model (Nuc8i5inh, Nuc8i7inh, Nuc8i3pnb, Nuc8i3pnh, or Nuc8i3pnk) running firmware version inwhl357.0036 or pnwhl357.0037 and has a local user with existing elevated privileges.
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 Intel firmware update for affected NUC models by downloading the latest BIOS/firmware from Intel's support site and following the standard firmware update procedure.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,272.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-12337 — 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-2020-12337 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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- 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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