CVE-2020-8691
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 · uneditedA logic issue in the firmware of the Intel(R) Ethernet 700 Series Controllers 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 logic issue in the firmware of Intel(R) Ethernet 700 Series Controllers allows a privileged user to potentially escalate privileges or cause denial of service via local access. The vulnerability stems from flawed logic in the controller firmware rather than memory corruption or injection flaws.
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 Controllers installedRun 'lspci | grep -i ethernet' or check Device Manager to list Ethernet controllers. Look for model names matching the 700 series such as V710, X710, Xxv710, or Xl710.Affected if An Intel Ethernet 700 Series controller (V710, X710, Xxv710, or Xl710) is present in the system
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Retrieve the firmware version of the controllerUse 'ethtool -i <interface>' where <interface> is the network interface name (e.g., eth0, ens33). This command displays firmware version information for the network device.Affected if The firmware version returned is less than 7.3 (for example, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0, etc.)
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Verify the specific firmware variantConfirm the exact firmware variant matches one of the affected products: V710 At2, X710 Tm4, X710 At2, Xxv710 Am2, Xxv710 Am1, X710 Bm2, Xl710 Bm2, or Xl710 Bm1. The firmware variant is typically shown in the ethtool output or the controller's specifications.Affected if The installed controller uses one of the listed firmware variants and the version is below 7.3
A system is affected if it contains any Intel Ethernet 700 Series controller (V710, X710, Xxv710, or Xl710) running firmware version 7.2 or lower.
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
Apply the vendor-supplied firmware update for Intel Ethernet 700 Series Controllers. Restrict physical and local access to affected devices to limit exposure.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-8691 — 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-2020-8691 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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