CVE-2021-0111
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 · uneditedNULL pointer dereference in the firmware for some Intel(R) Processors may allow a privileged user to potentially enable an 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 · high confidenceA NULL pointer dereference vulnerability in the firmware of certain Intel processors allows a privileged local user to potentially escalate their privileges. The vulnerability exists in the processor firmware (not software) and requires local access to the affected system.
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 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 your processor modelOn Linux, run 'lscpu | grep "Model name"' or 'cat /proc/cpuinfo' to find the processor name. On Windows, open Task Manager > Performance tab > CPU to see the processor name.Affected if The processor is NOT one of: Intel Atom C3308, C3336, C3338, C3338r, C3436l, C3508, C3538, or C3558. If your processor is one of these models, continue to the next check.
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Verify the affected Atom processor variantConfirm the exact processor model number matches one of the affected variants listed in the CVE. Some Atom processors may have similar names but different model numbers.Affected if The processor exactly matches one of the eight affected Intel Atom models listed.
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Check if local privileged access is possibleReview user account privileges on the system. Determine if any local user account has administrative or root privileges, or if an attacker could obtain such access.Affected if A local user can obtain privileged (administrator/root) access to the system. The CVE states a privileged local user can exploit this, so the system must allow local privileged access.
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Confirm physical or local access exposureAssess whether the system is accessible to local users or if it is in a purely remote/harded configuration without local console access.Affected if The system is accessible to a local user with physical or console access. The vulnerability requires local access to exploit.
Your system is affected if you are running any of these eight Intel Atom processors (C3308, C3336, C3338, C3338r, C3436l, C3508, C3538, C3558) and a local privileged user could access the system, since all firmware versions of these processors contain the 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 dataApply the Intel firmware/microcode update for affected processors. This typically involves updating the system BIOS/UEFI firmware or applying processor microcode updates through the operating system's kernel or platform firmware update mechanisms.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,600.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-0111 — 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-2021-0111 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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