Vulnerability · Published Aug 11, 2026 · Assigned by intel
CVE-2026-20901
Medium 4.0
In plain English
A medium-severity improper input validation in Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.1% (higher than 1% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
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.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:12 | intel-microcode | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-20901 |
| Debian:13 | intel-microcode | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-20901 |
| Debian:14 | intel-microcode | 3.20260925.1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-20901 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | intel-microcode | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-20901 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | intel-microcode | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-20901 |
| Ubuntu:26.04:LTS | intel-microcode | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-20901 |
| Ubuntu:26.10 | intel-microcode | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-20901 |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| n/a | Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors | See references |
Weakness: CWE-20 · Vector: 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