# CVE-2021-0146: Privilege escalation in Intel(R) processors which

> An attacker with physical access can activate debug logic to escalate privileges on Intel processors.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 17 Nov 2021
- **Updated:** 8 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2021-0146, GHSA-pqgg-8w8h-w2qq, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-0146

## What is CVE-2021-0146?

CVE-2021-0146 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Intel(R) processors which, published on 17 Nov 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Hardware allows activation of test or debug logic at runtime for some Intel(R) processors which may allow an unauthenticated user to potentially enable escalation of privilege via physical access.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-0146?

It affects 72 products.


Products: Intel Atom C3000 Firmware, Intel Atom X5-E3930 Firmware, Intel Atom X5-E3940 Firmware, Intel Atom X7-E3950 Firmware, Intel Celeron J1750 Firmware, Intel Celeron J1800 Firmware, Intel Celeron J1850 Firmware, Intel Celeron J1900 Firmware, Intel Celeron J3060 Firmware, Intel Celeron J3160 Firmware, Intel Celeron J3355 Firmware, Intel Celeron J3355e Firmware, Intel Celeron J3455 Firmware, Intel Celeron J3455e Firmware, Intel Celeron J4005 Firmware, Intel Celeron J4025 Firmware, Intel Celeron J4105 Firmware, Intel Celeron J4125 Firmware, Intel Celeron J6412 Firmware, Intel Celeron J6413 Firmware and 52 more.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-0146?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2021-0146 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-0146 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-0146 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-0146 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Intel(R) processors which, published on 17 Nov 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-2021-0146 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Intel(R) processors which. 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-2021-0146/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-0146/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-0146
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-0146
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-0146

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-0146/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.