CVE-2021-33060
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 · uneditedOut-of-bounds write in the BIOS firmware for some Intel(R) Processors may allow an authenticated 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 confidenceThis is a memory corruption vulnerability in the BIOS firmware of certain Intel processors where an out-of-bounds write occurs. An authenticated local user can exploit this to write to unintended memory locations, potentially achieving privilege escalation from their current user context to higher system privileges.
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
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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.
-
Identify the processor modelRun 'wmic cpu get name' on Windows or 'cat /proc/cpuinfo' on Linux to determine the exact CPU modelAffected if The CPU model is one of: Intel Xeon Gold 5315y, 5317, 5318n, 5318s, 5318y, 5320, 5320t, or 6312u
-
Determine the BIOS firmware versionOn Windows, run 'wmic bios get smbiosbiosversion' or check the BIOS setup utility. On Linux, run 'dmidecode -s bios-version' or check /sys/class/dmi/id/bios_versionAffected if Any BIOS version is installed on an affected CPU model, since all versions are vulnerable
-
Verify the system is not a virtualized guestCheck if the BIOS firmware is the actual host firmware or if the system is a virtual machine. On Linux, run 'systemd-detect-virt' or check for hypervisor presence in /proc/cpuinfoAffected if The vulnerability requires direct access to the host BIOS firmware; virtualized environments may not be directly affected unless the host firmware itself is vulnerable
A system is affected if it contains any of the listed Intel Xeon Gold processor models (5315y, 5317, 5318n, 5318s, 5318y, 5320, 5320t, or 6312u) regardless of BIOS version, since all versions contain the memory corruption flaw.
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-provided BIOS firmware update for affected processors. This requires coordinating a BIOS update deployment, which typically involves testing on representative systems first due to the inherent risk of firmware updates.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing8.0 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 $10,240.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-33060 — 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-2021-33060 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
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
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