CVE-2021-0114
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 · uneditedUnchecked return value 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 · moderate confidenceUnchecked return value vulnerability in Intel processor firmware allows a privileged local user to escalate privileges to a higher level. This is a firmware-level flaw affecting certain Intel processors where the code fails to properly validate return values from certain operations.
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 the processor modelRun 'lscpu' or 'cat /proc/cpuinfo' on Linux, or use 'wmic cpu get name' on Windows to retrieve the CPU model nameAffected if The processor model matches any of these: Intel Atom C3000, C3308, C3336, C3338, C3338r, C3436l, C3508, or C3538
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Verify the exact Atom C3000 series variantCheck the full BIOS/UEFI system information or use 'dmidecode -t processor' on Linux to get the exact processor part numberAffected if The part number corresponds to any of the affected Intel Atom C3000 series processors listed in the CVE
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Confirm firmware version for audit purposesCheck BIOS/UEFI version via 'dmidecode -t bios' on Linux, 'wmic bios get smbiosbiosversion' on Windows, or through the system firmware setup utilityAffected if This does not change affected status since all versions are vulnerable, but documents the baseline for reporting
A system is affected if it contains any of the following Intel Atom processors: C3000, C3308, C3336, C3338, C3338r, C3436l, C3508, or C3538 - regardless of firmware version since all versions of these processors are vulnerable.
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 Intel firmware/microcode updates for affected processors. Ensure all systems are running the latest validated firmware versions from Intel's support website.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,176.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-0114 — 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-2021-0114 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
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