# CVE-2023-20522: Denial of service in 2nd Gen EPYC

> An attacker with a malicious BIOS can cause a denial of service on AMD EPYC processors due to insufficient input validation in ASP.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:** 10 Jan 2023
- **Updated:** 7 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4434-6fgr-q9c4

## What is CVE-2023-20522?

CVE-2023-20522 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in 2nd Gen EPYC, published on 10 Jan 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Insufficient input validation in ASP may allow an attacker with a malicious BIOS to potentially cause a denial of service.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-20522?

It affects 2 products.


Products: Amd Milanpi Firmware, Amd Romepi Firmware.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-20522?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-20522 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-20522 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-20522 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in 2nd Gen EPYC

- [CVE-2021-26409](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-26409/): Memory corruption in 3rd Gen EPYC (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2021-46779](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-46779/): Memory corruption in 1st Gen EPYC (high 7.1)
- [CVE-2021-46767](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-46767/): Other in 2nd Gen EPYC (medium 6.1)
- [CVE-2021-46768](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-46768/): Denial of service in 2nd Gen EPYC (medium 5.5)
- [CVE-2021-46791](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-46791/): Memory corruption in 3rd Gen EPYC (medium 5.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-20522 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-20522 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in 2nd Gen EPYC, published on 10 Jan 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-2023-20522 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: 2nd Gen EPYC. 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-2023-20522/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20522/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-20522
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-20522
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-20522

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20522/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.