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Radeon SoftwareApplication · Amd

CVE-2020-12964

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-11-15
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 20.7.1 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
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
A potential privilege escalation/denial of service issue exists in the AMD Radeon Kernel Mode driver Escape 0x2000c00 Call handler. An attacker with low privilege could potentially induce a Windows BugCheck or write to leak information.

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

A vulnerability exists in the AMD Radeon Kernel Mode driver's Escape 0x2000c00 Call handler that allows a low-privilege attacker to potentially induce a Windows BugCheck (system crash/DoS) or write to arbitrary memory locations to leak information, indicating both denial of service and potential privilege escalation vectors.

MitigationApply the AMD vendor patch for this vulnerability when available. Until then, restrict low-privilege user access to systems with affected AMD Radeon graphics drivers and monitor for suspicious graphics driver interactions.

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
Radeon SoftwareApplication
Affected:< 20.7.1

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
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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify AMD Radeon graphics hardware
    Open Device Manager and expand 'Display adapters' to see if an AMD Radeon GPU is listed, or run 'wmic path win32_VideoController get name' in Command Prompt
    Affected if No AMD Radeon GPU is present in the system, the vulnerability does not apply
  2. Check installed AMD Radeon Software version
    Open Programs and Features in Control Panel and look for 'AMD Radeon Software' or 'AMD Catalyst Control Center' to view the installed version number
    Affected if The installed version is older than 20.7.1 (for example, 20.5.1, 19.x.x, etc.)
  3. Verify the vulnerable driver component
    Check for the presence of the AMD kernel mode driver (atikmdag.sys or atikfxlp.sys) in System32\drivers directory and view its file properties to confirm the version
    Affected if The driver version corresponds to AMD Radeon Software versions prior to 20.7.1
  4. Check driver accessibility by low-privilege users
    Use 'sc qc' or 'driverquery /v' commands to examine the AMD graphics driver service configuration and verify if non-admin users can send IOCTL requests to the driver
    Affected if Low-privilege users have the ability to interact with the AMD kernel mode driver without restrictions

The system is affected if it contains an AMD Radeon GPU running software version older than 20.7.1, with the vulnerable Escape 0x2000c00 handler accessible to low-privilege users.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 20.7.1 or later
Fixed in 20.7.1
Interim mitigation

Apply the AMD vendor patch for this vulnerability when available. Until then, restrict low-privilege user access to systems with affected AMD Radeon graphics drivers and monitor for suspicious graphics driver interactions.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Radeon Software version 20.7.1 or later

  1. Navigate to the official AMD website (www.amd.com) and locate the drivers and support section for Radeon graphics products
  2. Download Radeon Software version 20.7.1 or a later stable release
  3. Run the downloaded installer and follow the on-screen prompts to install the updated graphics driver
  4. Restart your computer after the installation completes to ensure the new driver is fully loaded
  5. Verify the installed driver version matches 20.7.1 or later through the AMD Radeon Software interface
Caveat Driver updates may introduce compatibility changes with older applications; verify critical software works with the new version

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Radeon Software Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,560
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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-2020-12964 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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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