CVE-2020-8764
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 · uneditedImproper access control in BIOS firmware for some Intel(R) Processors may allow a privileged user to potentially enable escalation of privilege 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 confidenceImproper access control in BIOS firmware for certain Intel processors allows a privileged local user to escalate their privileges. This is a firmware-level vulnerability requiring the attacker to already have privileged access and local system access.
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 dataall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsall versionsCVSS 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 BIOS vendor and versionRun 'dmidecode -s bios-version' or check system BIOS information via 'msinfo32' on Windows, or restart and enter BIOS setup to view version informationAffected if The system uses Intel BIOS or any of the NetApp BIOS variants listed (Aff, Fas, Hci Compute Node, Hci Storage Node, Solidfire)
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Identify processor modelRun 'lscpu' on Linux or check CPU information via 'msinfo32' on Windows to determine the Intel processor modelAffected if The processor is one of the Intel processor models that this BIOS vulnerability applies to (check Intel's processor compatibility list for CVE-2020-8764)
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Verify if firmware has been updatedCompare your current BIOS firmware version against the Intel-provided patched version for your specific processor, or check with your system OEM for the fixed BIOS versionAffected if The BIOS firmware version has not been updated to the Intel-patched version for your processor model, meaning all versions are affected since no patched version is yet applied
You are affected if your system uses any of the listed BIOS products (Intel or NetApp variants) on an affected Intel processor and the BIOS firmware has not been updated to the Intel-provided patched version for that processor.
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 dataApply the Intel BIOS/firmware update for affected processors. Contact the system OEM for the appropriate BIOS update, as this cannot be remediated through software patches alone.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-8764 — 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-2020-8764 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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