# CVE-2026-20901: Privilege escalation in Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors

> A local attacker with privileged access can exploit improper input validation in Intel Xeon firmware to escalate privileges and alter data.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.0 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:H/SA:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 11 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 12 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-20901, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-20901, GHSA-j38j-4xcw-8784, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-20901

## What is CVE-2026-20901?

CVE-2026-20901 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Intel(R) Xeon(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 input validation for some Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors within firmware may allow an escalation of privilege. Startup code and smm adversary with a privileged user combined with a high complexity attack may enable data alteration. This result may potentially occur via local access when attack requirements are present without special internal knowledge and requires no user interaction. The potential vulnerability may impact the confidentiality (none), integrity (none) and availability (none) of the vulnerable system, resulting in subsequent system confidentiality (none), integrity (high) and availability (none) impacts.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-20901?

It affects 141 products.


Products: Intel Xeon Bronze 3408u, Intel Xeon Bronze 3408u Firmware, Intel Xeon Bronze 3508u Firmware, Intel Xeon Gold 5403n Firmware, Intel Xeon Gold 5411n, Intel Xeon Gold 5411n Firmware, Intel Xeon Gold 5412u, Intel Xeon Gold 5412u Firmware, Intel Xeon Gold 5415, Intel Xeon Gold 5415\+ Firmware, Intel Xeon Gold 5415 Firmware, Intel Xeon Gold 5416s, Intel Xeon Gold 5416s Firmware, Intel Xeon Gold 5418n, Intel Xeon Gold 5418n Firmware, Intel Xeon Gold 5418y, Intel Xeon Gold 5418y Firmware, Intel Xeon Gold 5420, Intel Xeon Gold 5420\+ Firmware, Intel Xeon Gold 5420 Firmware and 121 more.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-20901?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-20901 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-20901 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-20901 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-20901 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Intel(R) Xeon(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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-20901 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors. 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-2026-20901/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20901/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-20901
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-20901
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-20901

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-20901/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.