CVE-2026-20760 Privilege escalation in Intel(R) Processors
A local privileged attacker can exploit improper memory overlap handling in Intel processor microcode to escalate privileges to Ring 0.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-20760?
CVE-2026-20760 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Intel(R) Processors, published on 11 Aug 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Improper handling of overlap between protected memory ranges in some microcode for some Intel(R) Processors within Ring 0: Hypervisor may allow an escalation of privilege. Authorized adversary with a privileged user combined with a low complexity attack may enable escalation of privilege. This result may potentially occur via local access when attack requirements are not present without special internal knowledge and requires no user interaction. The potential vulnerability may impact the confidentiality (high), integrity (high) and availability (high) of the vulnerable system, resulting in subsequent system confidentiality (none), integrity (none) and availability (none) impacts.
Weakness: CWE-1260
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-20760?
How do I fix CVE-2026-20760?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-20760 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-20760 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2026-20760, BELL-CVE-2026-20760, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-20760, GHSA-3v3f-887c-p9f4, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-20760.