Escalation of Privilege Issue in Intel Processors
CVE-2026-20709
Key Information:
- Vendor
Intel
- Vendor
- CVE Published:
- 8 April 2026
What is CVE-2026-20709?
The vulnerability arises from the use of a default cryptographic key in certain Intel Pentium and Celeron processors. This issue could allow an adversary with physical access and specialized internal knowledge to escalate privileges on the device. Such an attack does not require user interaction and can pose serious risks to system confidentiality, potentially exposing sensitive information. Although it does not affect integrity or availability directly, the implications for confidentiality present a significant security concern for affected users.
Affected Version(s)
Intel(R) Pentium(R) Processor Silver Series, Intel(R) Celeron(R) Processor J Series, Intel(R) Celeron(R) Processor N Series may allow an escalation of privilege. Hardware reverse engineer adversary with a privileged user combined with a high complexity attack may enable escalation of privilege. This result may potentially occur via physical access when attack requirements are present with special internal knowledge and requires no user interaction. The potential vulnerability may impact the confidentiality (high), integrity (none) and availability (none) of the vulnerable system, resulting in subsequent system confidentiality (high), integrity (high) and availability (none) impacts. See references