CVE-2023-31352
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 · uneditedA bug in the SEV firmware may allow an attacker with privileges to read unencrypted memory, potentially resulting in loss of guest private data.
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 confidenceA bug in AMD SEV (Secure Encrypted Virtualization) firmware allows an attacker with existing system privileges to read memory that should be encrypted but is not, potentially exposing sensitive guest virtual machine data.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
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
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N
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.
-
Verify AMD SEV is present on the systemCheck CPU flags for SEV support: grep -o 'sev' /proc/cpuinfo or check dmesg for 'AMD-Vi: AMD IOMMUv2: SEV supported'Affected if The system lacks SEV support entirely (not affected); if SEV is present and enabled, proceed to next checks
-
Identify SEV-encrypted virtual machinesList running VMs and check their configuration for SEV enabled: virsh list --all && virsh dumpxml <vm-name> | grep -i sevAffected if No VMs are configured with SEV encryption (not affected); if VMs have SEV enabled, the environment could be exposed
-
Check the current SEV firmware versionQuery the SEV firmware version via AMD Secure Processor: dmesg | grep -i sev | grep -i version, or use 'cat /sys/firmware/amd/sev' if available, or check BIOS/UEFI version as SEV firmware is often bundled with BIOSAffected if The SEV firmware version cannot be determined or is older than the patched version released for this CVE (affected)
-
Confirm SEV memory encryption is active for vulnerable VMsFor a running SEV-enabled VM, verify memory encryption is working: virsh domblklist <vm-name> to identify the VM, then check if the hypervisor reports SEV as active in its logs or via 'ls -la /dev/sev' or 'kvm_stat | grep sev'Affected if SEV-encrypted VMs are running but memory encryption shows as inactive or inconsistent (affected)
The environment is affected if AMD SEV is enabled and in use, the SEV firmware version is unpatched, and SEV-encrypted VMs are running without proper memory encryption protection.
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 AMD SEV firmware patch when available; verify that SEV-encrypted VMs are properly protecting memory and consider isolating sensitive workloads until the update is deployed.
- 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-2023-31352 — 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-2023-31352 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