Intel Slim Bootloader: Stack buffer overflow enables privilege escalation
Summary
A stack-based buffer overflow (CWE-121) in the UEFI firmware of Intel Slim Bootloader can allow an attacker to escalate privileges within Ring 0 on affected devices. According to the CVE description and CVSS 4.0 vector (8.6, High), the attack needs physical access, no privileges and no user interaction, and could affect confidentiality, integrity and availability. The description and vector are similar to the earlier CVE-2025-35968 but rated higher, so verify them against Intel's advisory.
Affected
- Intel Slim Bootloader UEFI firmware (per INTEL-SA-01526)
- Listed platforms in the advisory: 12th Generation Intel Core (Alder Lake), Intel Pentium Gold and Celeron (Alder Lake, Arizona Beach, Amston Lake), Intel Processor N-series (Twin Lake)
- Exact versions and whether this CVE maps to all listed platforms: Unknown.
Fixed in
Unknown. The fixed firmware revision for CVE-2026-35500 was not found in the available advisory excerpt. Related Slim Bootloader CVEs have fixes in other commits, which do not apply to this CVE.
Workaround
Unknown. No specific mitigation was found for this CVE. Check INTEL-SA-01526 for interim guidance.
Exploitation
- No evidence of exploitation in the wild found.
- No public proof of concept found.
- The CVE was published recently, so exploitation data is limited.
Our recommendation
- Check whether any devices in your environment run Intel Slim Bootloader, and ask hardware vendors for firmware advisories.
- Restrict physical access to affected devices, especially shared, unattended or publicly accessible systems.
- Enable BIOS/firmware passwords and Secure Boot or TPM measurements where supported.
- Apply vendor firmware updates as soon as they are available.
- Re-check NVD, Intel's advisory and CISA KEV in the coming weeks.
Public exploits
PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit and Exploit-DB list nothing for this CVE.
Research sources
- Intel Security Advisory INTEL-SA-01526 intel.com
- Intel Security Advisory INTEL-SA-01425 (related CVE) www.intel.com
- Intel Security Advisory INTEL-SA-01475 (related CVE) www.intel.com
- Intel Security Advisory INTEL-SA-01395 (related CVE) www.intel.com
- Intel Product Security Center www.intel.com
- CWE-121: Stack-based Buffer Overflow cwe.mitre.org
Researched and written up in English and German by an AI (Claude by Anthropic) based on NVD, CISA, EPSS and the sources listed. The vendor information is authoritative. Researched on 10 Nov 2026, 19:26.
Original description (NVD)
Stack-based buffer overflow in the UEFI firmware for the Intel(R) Slim Bootloader within Ring 0: Bare Metal OS may allow an escalation of privilege. Startup code and smm adversary with an unauthenticated user combined with a low complexity attack may enable escalation of privilege. This result may potentially occur via physical 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 (high), integrity (high) and availability (high) impacts.
Sources
The tracker combines official, freely usable data sources – updated continuously:
- NVD (NIST) – CVEs, rating (CVSS), affected products
- CISA KEV – vulnerabilities confirmed by CISA as actively exploited
- CISA Vulnrichment – CISA assessment (SSVC) in the official CVE record
- FIRST EPSS – probability of exploitation
- Microsoft MSRC – Patch Tuesday: vulnerabilities, severity, updates
- PoC-in-GitHub – public proof-of-concept repositories
- Metasploit (Rapid7) – modules of the Metasploit Framework
- Exploit-DB (OffSec) – archive of public exploits (links only)
- Patch days: official vendor pages (linked per vendor) (Vendor patch days)
This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS data © FIRST.org.
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