# CVE-2020-0523: Denial of service in Intel(R) Ethernet I210 Controller series of network adapters

> A privileged local user can cause a denial of service in Intel Ethernet I210 controllers due to improper access control in the firmware.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 17 Feb 2021
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-26wj-j8fv-r797

## What is CVE-2020-0523?

CVE-2020-0523 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Intel(R) Ethernet I210 Controller series of network adapters, published on 17 Feb 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Improper access control in the firmware for the Intel(R) Ethernet I210 Controller series of network adapters before version 3.30 may potentially allow a privileged user to enable a denial of service via local access.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-0523?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Intel Ethernet Controller I210 Firmware.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-0523?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-0523 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-0523 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-0523 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Intel(R) Ethernet I210 Controller series of network adapters

- [CVE-2020-0524](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-0524/): Misconfiguration in Intel(R) Ethernet I210 Controller series of network adapters (medium 5.5)
- [CVE-2020-0522](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-0522/): Denial of service in Intel(R) Ethernet I210 Controller series of network adapters (medium 4.4)
- [CVE-2020-0525](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-0525/): Denial of service in Intel(R) Ethernet I210 Controller series of network adapters (medium 4.4)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-0523 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-0523 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Intel(R) Ethernet I210 Controller series of network adapters, published on 17 Feb 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-0523 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Intel(R) Ethernet I210 Controller series of network adapters. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-0523/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-0523/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-0523
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-0523
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-0523

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-0523/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.