CVE-2023-34440
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 · uneditedImproper input validation in UEFI firmware for some Intel(R) Processors may allow a privileged 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 confidenceImproper input validation in UEFI firmware for certain Intel processors allows a privileged local user to potentially escalate privileges. This is a firmware-level vulnerability in the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, where insufficient validation of input data could be exploited to gain higher-level system privileges.
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
- High
- Privileges
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/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 Intel processor modelUse system information utilities (such as 'dmidecode -s processor-version' on Linux, 'wmic cpu get name' on Windows, or check BIOS/UEFI setup) to identify the exact Intel processor model number in the system.Affected if The processor is one of the affected Intel processor models for this CVE (when specific model information becomes available from Intel advisories).
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Check the current UEFI firmware versionAccess the UEFI/BIOS setup screen during boot, or use system-specific tools such as 'dmidecode -s bios-version' on Linux, 'wmic bios get smbiosbiosversion' on Windows, or the vendor's firmware update utility to retrieve the installed UEFI firmware version.Affected if The installed UEFI firmware version is older than the version that includes the fix for this vulnerability.
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Compare firmware version to Intel or OEM advisoriesConsult the Intel security advisory (INTEL-SA-00847 or related) and the system OEM (Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc.) support pages to find the corrected firmware version for your specific processor and system model.Affected if A corrected firmware version exists but is not installed on the system.
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Verify physical and local access controlsReview system access controls to determine whether untrusted local users have physical access or local user accounts with privileges on the system.Affected if Untrusted local users have physical access or unprivileged local accounts exist on systems with affected UEFI firmware.
The system is affected if it uses an affected Intel processor model with a UEFI firmware version predating the available fix, and untrusted local users could potentially gain physical or local access.
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-provided firmware updates or OEM UEFI firmware updates that address this vulnerability. Limit physical and local access to systems hosting affected processors to trusted privileged users only.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation24.0 h
- Testing16.0 h
- Review / QA8.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $15,616.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-34440 — 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-2023-34440 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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- 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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