CVE-2020-8690
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 · uneditedProtection mechanism failure in Intel(R) Ethernet 700 Series Controllers before version 7.3 may allow a privileged user to potentially enable escalation of privilege and/or denial of service 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 confidenceA protection mechanism failure in Intel Ethernet 700 Series Controllers prior to version 7.3 allows a privileged user to potentially escalate privileges or cause a denial of service via local access. This is a firmware-level vulnerability in the network controller that fails to properly enforce security boundaries.
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< 7.3< 7.3< 7.3< 7.3< 7.3< 7.3< 7.3< 7.3CVSS 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 Ethernet 700 Series ControllersRun 'lspci | grep -i ethernet' or 'lspci | grep -i intel' to list network controllers. Look for model numbers: V710, X710, Xxv710, Xl710.Affected if The system has any of these controller models: V710, X710 (Tm4, At2, Bm2), Xxv710 (Am2, Am1), Xl710 (Bm2, Bm1)
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Retrieve network controller firmware versionRun 'ethtool -i <interface>' where <interface> is the network interface name (e.g., eth0, ens33). Look for the 'firmware-version' field.Affected if The firmware version shown is less than 7.3 (for example, 7.0, 7.2, etc.)
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Check for multiple Ethernet interfacesRun 'ip link show' or 'ifconfig -a' to list all network interfaces, then check each Intel 700 Series interface firmware version using ethtool -i for each.Affected if Any Intel Ethernet 700 Series interface has firmware version < 7.3
If any Intel Ethernet 700 Series Controller (V710, X710, Xxv710, Xl710 variants) is present with firmware version prior to 7.3, the system is affected by this vulnerability.
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 data7.3
Update Intel Ethernet 700 Series Controllers to firmware version 7.3 or later to address the protection mechanism failure.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-8690 — 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-2020-8690 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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