# CVE-2022-23821: Privilege escalation in AMD Ryzen™ Embedded 5000

> An attacker can exploit improper access control in System Management Mode to write to SPI ROM, potentially achieving arbitrary code execution.

- **Severity:** Critical 9.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 14 Nov 2023
- **Updated:** 3 Dec 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-wrmf-3x8w-vcx2

## What is CVE-2022-23821?

CVE-2022-23821 is a critical vulnerability in AMD Ryzen™  Embedded 5000, published on 14 Nov 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Improper access control in System Management Mode (SMM) may allow an attacker to write to SPI ROM potentially leading to arbitrary code execution.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-23821?

It affects 108 products.


Products: Amd Athlon 3015ce Firmware, Amd Athlon 3015e Firmware, Amd Ryzen 3 3100 Firmware, Amd Ryzen 3 3200u Firmware, Amd Ryzen 3 3250c Firmware, Amd Ryzen 3 3250u Firmware, Amd Ryzen 3 3300u Firmware, Amd Ryzen 3 3300x Firmware, Amd Ryzen 3 3350u Firmware, Amd Ryzen 3 4300u Firmware, Amd Ryzen 3 5100 Firmware, Amd Ryzen 3 5125c Firmware, Amd Ryzen 3 5400u Firmware, Amd Ryzen 3 5425u Firmware, Amd Ryzen 3 7335u Firmware, Amd Ryzen 5 3450u Firmware, Amd Ryzen 5 3500 Firmware, Amd Ryzen 5 3500c Firmware, Amd Ryzen 5 3500u Firmware, Amd Ryzen 5 3500x Firmware and 88 more.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-23821?

No fix has been published for CVE-2022-23821 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2022-23821 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-23821 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in AMD Ryzen™  Embedded 5000

- [CVE-2023-20555](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20555/): Memory corruption in Athlon™ 3000 Series Desktop Processors with Radeon™ Graphics “Picasso” (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2022-23820](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-23820/): Memory corruption in 3rd Gen AMD EPYC™ Processors (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-23821 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-23821 is a critical vulnerability in AMD Ryzen™  Embedded 5000, published on 14 Nov 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-23821 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: AMD Ryzen™  Embedded 5000. 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-2022-23821/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-23821/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-23821
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-23821
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-23821

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-23821/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.