CVE-2023-38581
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 · uneditedBuffer overflow in Intel(R) Power Gadget software for Windows all versions 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 · high confidenceBuffer overflow vulnerability in Intel(R) Power Gadget for Windows allows an authenticated local user to potentially escalate privileges to higher permissions. The flaw stems from insufficient bounds checking in the software's handling of 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 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
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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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Confirm Intel Power Gadget installationOpen Windows Settings > Apps & Features, or run 'Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product' in PowerShell, and search for 'Intel Power Gadget' in the installed programs listAffected if Intel Power Gadget appears in the installed programs on the system
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Check installed versionRight-click on the Intel Power Gadget executable in Program Files (typically C:\Program Files\Intel\Power Gadget 3.0\) and view Properties > Details, or check the version through 'Get-ItemProperty' in PowerShell against the installation directoryAffected if Any version number is returned, since all versions are affected according to the CVE
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Identify running process or serviceOpen Task Manager or run 'Get-Process | Where-Object {$_.ProcessName -like "*PowerGadget*"}' in PowerShell to check if IntelPowerGadget.exe is currently runningAffected if The Intel Power Gadget process is actively running on the system
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Verify driver component statusOpen Device Manager and look under 'System devices' for 'Intel Power Gadget' driver, or run 'driverquery /v | findstr PowerGadget' in Command PromptAffected if The Intel Power Gadget driver is loaded or installed on the system
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Check user context exposureReview which user accounts have local access to the system and run 'whoami /groups' to identify standard user accounts that could trigger the vulnerabilityAffected if Non-administrator user accounts exist on the system with local access
If Intel Power Gadget for Windows is installed and running on the system, the environment is affected by this vulnerability regardless of version since all versions are impacted.
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 vendor-supplied patch from Intel when available. Until then, restrict system access to trusted administrators only and limit local user privileges on affected systems.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-38581 — 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-2023-38581 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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