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82599en FirmwareOperating system · Intel

CVE-2021-33061

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-02-09
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.13.4 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click

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 · unedited
Insufficient control flow management for the Intel(R) 82599 Ethernet Controllers and Adapters may allow an authenticated user to potentially enable 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 confidence

Insufficient control flow management in Intel 82599 Ethernet Controllers and Adapters allows an authenticated local user to potentially cause denial of service. This is a hardware/firmware-level vulnerability in a commonly deployed 10GbE network controller where improper handling of control flow can be exploited to crash or render the network adapter unavailable.

MitigationApply Intel firmware updates for the 82599 controller family. If patches are unavailable, restrict physical and local console access to affected systems, and monitor for suspicious local authentication activity.

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
82599en FirmwareOperating system
Affected:< 5.13.4
82599eb FirmwareOperating system
Affected:< 5.13.4
82599es FirmwareOperating system
Affected:< 5.13.4

CVSS 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
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Intel 82599 network controllers installed
    Run 'lspci | grep -i 82599' or 'lspci -v' to list PCI network devices and look for Intel 82599en, 82599eb, or 82599es adapters
    Affected if No Intel 82599 adapters are present in the system
  2. Get firmware version of Intel 82599 adapter
    Use 'ethtool -i <interface>' where <interface> is the network interface name (e.g., eth0, ens33) to retrieve adapter firmware version. The firmware version appears in the 'firmware-version' field
    Affected if Cannot retrieve firmware version or adapter is not an Intel 82599 variant
  3. Compare firmware version against affected range
    If firmware version is obtained, compare it to 5.13.4. Versions below 5.13.4 are affected (e.g., 5.0.x, 5.1.x, 5.2.x, 5.3.x)
    Affected if Firmware version is less than 5.13.4 (for example, 5.0.5 or any 5.x version below 5.13.4)
  4. Verify local access vectors
    Review system access controls to determine if untrusted authenticated local users can access the system console or have shell access
    Affected if Untrusted local users have console or shell access to systems with vulnerable firmware

A system is affected if it contains an Intel 82599en, 82599eb, or 82599es adapter with firmware version below 5.13.4 and allows untrusted local users to authenticate to the system.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.13.4 or later
Fixed in 5.13.4
Interim mitigation

Apply Intel firmware updates for the 82599 controller family. If patches are unavailable, restrict physical and local console access to affected systems, and monitor for suspicious local authentication activity.

Recommended fix High confidence

Firmware version 5.13.4 or later for Intel 82599en/82599eb/82599es Ethernet Controllers

  1. Identify the current firmware version of the Intel 82599 Ethernet Controller/Adapter using the Intel Ethernet diagnostics tools or system management interface.
  2. Download the Intel 82599 Ethernet Controller firmware version 5.13.4 or later from the official Intel support website (www.intel.com).
  3. Follow Intel's documented firmware update procedure for the 82599 Ethernet Controllers, typically using the Intel Ethernet Firmware Update Tool or appropriate BMC/UEFI firmware management interface.
  4. After updating, verify the firmware version has been successfully upgraded to 5.13.4 or later.
  5. Reboot the system or restart the network adapter as required by the update process to ensure the new firmware is loaded.
Caveat Firmware updates carry inherent risks; ensure backup and follow Intel's update instructions carefully to avoid rendering the adapter unusable

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in 82599en Firmware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-33061 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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