CVE-2025-20083
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 authentication in the firmware for the Intel(R) Slim Bootloader 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 authentication in the Intel Slim Bootloader firmware allows a privileged user to escalate privileges through local access. This is a boot-time vulnerability where authentication mechanisms can be bypassed, enabling an authenticated but lower-privileged user to gain higher 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 Intel Slim Bootloader presenceCheck system BIOS/UEFI firmware information or use platform-specific tools (such as dmidecode, in-band controller tools, or OEM diagnostic utilities) to determine if Intel Slim Bootloader is present on the systemAffected if Intel Slim Bootloader is present on the system
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Retrieve Slim Bootloader firmware versionAccess the BIOS/UEFI setup menu or use vendor-provided firmware version detection tools to obtain the installed Intel Slim Bootloader firmware versionAffected if Version cannot be verified or is older than the Intel-recommended patched version once published in the security advisory
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Check boot authentication configurationExamine BIOS/UEFI boot security settings for Slim Bootloader authentication configurations, specifically looking for any authentication bypass or privilege elevation pathways documented in the vulnerability descriptionAffected if Authentication settings allow bypass or the system permits lower-privileged local access to boot processes
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Assess local access privilege contextDetermine if the system allows local physical or console access where an authenticated but lower-privileged user could interact with boot-time interfacesAffected if Local authenticated access is possible and the boot loader does not enforce proper privilege boundaries
The environment is affected if the system uses Intel Slim Bootloader firmware and an authenticated local user can bypass authentication to escalate privileges at boot time.
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 firmware update for Slim Bootloader once released. Verify the update through Intel's official security advisories and ensure boot security configurations are properly validated post-update.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 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 $6,176.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-20083 — 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-2025-20083 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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