CVE-2020-5378
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 · uneditedDell G7 17 7790 BIOS versions prior to 1.13.2 contain a UEFI BIOS Boot Services overwrite vulnerability. A local attacker with access to system memory may exploit this vulnerability by overwriting the EFI_BOOT_SERVICES structure to execute arbitrary code in System Management Mode (SMM).
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 confidenceLocal privilege escalation vulnerability in Dell G7 17 7790 UEFI BIOS. An attacker with local system memory access can overwrite the EFI_BOOT_SERVICES structure to execute arbitrary code in System Management Mode (SMM), which runs at the highest privilege level below the hypervisor.
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< 1.13.2CVSS 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
- Physical
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/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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Confirm you have a Dell G7 17 7790 laptopRun `wmic computersystem get model` or `systeminfo` to retrieve the system model nameAffected if The model is not Dell G7 17 7790 (the vulnerability only applies to this specific model)
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Check the installed BIOS versionRun `wmic bios get smbiosbiosversion` to retrieve the current BIOS firmware versionAffected if This command returns a version number that can be compared against the vulnerable range
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Compare your BIOS version against the vulnerable rangeExamine the version returned from the BIOS check. The vulnerable range is any version less than 1.13.2Affected if The BIOS version is < 1.13.2 (for example, 1.12.0, 1.11.0, or earlier)
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Verify the BIOS version is the standard Dell version formatConfirm the version string follows Dell's format (e.g., 1.13.2, 1.12.0) and not a custom or modified firmwareAffected if The BIOS has been modified from the official Dell firmware or the version cannot be determined
You are affected only if you have a Dell G7 17 7790 laptop with BIOS version installed that is less than 1.13.2.
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.
From vendor data1.13.2
Update Dell G7 17 7790 BIOS to version 1.13.2 or later via Dell's BIOS update utility or firmware flash process.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 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 $1,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-5378 — 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-2020-5378 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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