CVE-2020-12898
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 · uneditedStack Buffer Overflow in AMD Graphics Driver for Windows 10 may lead to escalation of privilege or denial of service.
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 confidenceA stack buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the AMD Graphics Driver for Windows 10. This occurs when the driver writes data beyond the allocated stack memory buffer boundaries, potentially allowing an attacker to overwrite return addresses or adjacent stack variables. Successful exploitation can lead to arbitrary code execution with elevated privileges or cause a system crash (denial of service).
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< 20.11.2CVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify AMD graphics hardware is presentOpen Device Manager, expand 'Display adapters' and confirm an AMD Radeon GPU is listedAffected if No AMD GPU is found - the system does not have AMD graphics hardware and is not affected
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Identify the installed AMD driver versionIn Device Manager, right-click the AMD display adapter, select Properties, go to the Driver tab, and record the Driver Version shownAffected if Unable to retrieve the driver version from Device Manager
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Compare version against affected rangeCompare the installed driver version to 20.11.2 - any version number lower than 20.11.2 falls within the affected rangeAffected if Installed driver version is 20.11.1 or any earlier version number
The system is affected if it has an AMD Radeon GPU with a graphics driver version installed that is lower than 20.11.2
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.
dbcve · scoped20.11.2
Apply the AMD graphics driver security update/patch provided by AMD to resolve the buffer overflow vulnerability. In enterprise environments, test the driver update for compatibility before broad deployment.
Radeon Software 20.11.2 or later
- 1. Verify current AMD Radeon Software version by opening AMD Radeon Software and checking the version number in the top-right corner
- 2. Download AMD Radeon Software version 20.11.2 or later from the official AMD website (support.amd.com)
- 3. Close all running applications before installation
- 4. Run the downloaded installer and follow the on-screen prompts to install the updated driver
- 5. Restart the computer when prompted to complete the installation
- 6. Verify the installed version matches or exceeds 20.11.2 after restart
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-12898 — 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-2020-12898 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data