CVE-2026-20783 in NPU Driver
Summary
by MITRE • 08/12/2026
Improper conditions check in the firmware for the Intel(R) NPU Driver for all versions within Ring 1: Device Drivers may allow a denial of service. Unprivileged software adversary with an authenticated user combined with a low complexity attack may enable denial of service. 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 (none), integrity (low) and availability (high) of the vulnerable system, resulting in subsequent system confidentiality (none), integrity (none) and availability (none) impacts.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/12/2026
The vulnerability described represents a critical flaw in the Intel NPU Driver firmware that operates within Ring 1 privileges, creating a significant security risk for systems utilizing Intel Neural Processing Units. This improper conditions check manifests as a failure to adequately validate system states or resource availability before proceeding with driver operations, potentially leading to system instability and denial of service conditions. The vulnerability's classification under CWE-252 indicates a weakness in the validation of conditions that should be checked but are not properly enforced, making it particularly dangerous in privileged execution contexts where such failures can cascade into broader system compromises.
The attack vector for this vulnerability requires an authenticated user with unprivileged software access, yet the low complexity of the attack means that even relatively unsophisticated adversaries can exploit this condition. The local access requirement eliminates the need for network-based exploitation, making it particularly concerning for environments where users may have legitimate access to systems but could potentially abuse their privileges. This weakness operates at the device driver level, where improper validation can cause kernel-level instability and system crashes that affect overall system availability. The attack does not require user interaction or special internal knowledge, which means it can be automated and potentially exploited without advanced technical skills.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates a high availability risk while maintaining minimal confidentiality impact and low integrity impact. The denial of service condition can render the entire system unusable, effectively disabling the neural processing capabilities that depend on the Intel NPU Driver. This disruption can have cascading effects throughout enterprise environments where AI workloads are critical for operations, potentially causing production outages and significant business disruption. The vulnerability's potential to affect system availability while maintaining no confidentiality impact suggests that adversaries cannot extract sensitive data but can still cause substantial operational damage through service interruption.
The recommended mitigations for this vulnerability should include immediate firmware updates from Intel to address the improper conditions check in the driver implementation. System administrators should implement strict access controls and privilege management to minimize the potential impact of authenticated users who might exploit this condition. Additionally, monitoring solutions should be deployed to detect unusual system behavior or repeated access attempts that could indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability's characteristics align with ATT&CK technique T1499 which involves disruption of services through denial of service attacks, particularly focusing on the disruption of system availability while maintaining relatively low complexity for execution. Organizations should also consider implementing runtime protection mechanisms and kernel integrity checking to prevent unauthorized modifications to driver components that could exacerbate this vulnerability's impact.