CVE-2024-37020VulnerabilityPublished 12 Feb 2025Updated 3 Nov 2025

CVE-2024-37020: Intel(R) Xeon(R) Processors · Denial of Service

Affects Intel(R) Xeon(R) ProcessorsSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.9 Medium.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

4.9Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 14% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None
Vulnerable system integrity: None
Vulnerable system availability: Low
Subsequent system confidentiality: None
Subsequent system integrity: None
Subsequent system availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable system is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or through terminal emulation (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., using social engineering techniques to trick a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: The attacker must take no measurable action to exploit the vulnerability. The attack requires no target-specific circumvention to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: None: The successful attack does not depend on the deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system. The attacker can expect to be able to reach the vulnerability and execute the exploit under all or most instances of the vulnerability.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker requires privileges that provide basic capabilities that are typically limited to settings and resources owned by a single low-privileged user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges has the ability to access only non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without interaction from any human user, other than the attacker.
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the Vulnerable System are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Subsequent System or all confidentiality impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Subsequent System or all integrity impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Subsequent System or all availability impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v4.0 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 12 Feb 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-25.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

AI-suggested

1. Monitor Intel's official channels for firmware, microcode, or software patches addressing CVE-2024-37020 and apply them promptly once available. 2. Restrict local access to systems with affected Intel Xeon processors to trusted and authenticated personnel only, minimizing the risk of exploitation by unauthorized users. 3. Implement strict access controls and multi-factor authentication for accounts with local access privileges to reduce the likelihood of credential compromise. 4. Employ system and processor behavior monitoring tools to detect anomalies that may indicate attempts to exploit the vulnerability, such as unusual instruction sequences or processor faults. 5. Conduct regular audits of user privileges and local access logs to identify and respond to suspicious activities quickly. 6. For virtualized environments, isolate workloads and limit the exposure of Intel DSA features to only those applications that require them. 7. Engage with hardware vendors and cloud providers to confirm the status of patches and mitigation measures in managed environments. 8. Develop and test incident response plans that include scenarios involving denial of service caused by processor-level vulnerabilities.

Description

Sequence of processor instructions leads to unexpected behavior in the Intel(R) DSA V1.0 for some Intel(R) Xeon(R) Processors may allow an authenticated user to potentially enable denial of service via local access.

Impact

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2024-37020 is the potential disruption of critical services due to denial of service conditions on servers running affected Intel Xeon processors. This can affect data centers, cloud service providers, financial institutions, telecommunications infrastructure, and government agencies that rely on these processors for high-performance computing and virtualization. The availability impact could lead to downtime, service interruptions, and potential financial losses or reputational damage. Since the vulnerability requires local authenticated access, insider threats or compromised accounts pose a significant risk vector. The lack of confidentiality or integrity impact reduces the risk of data breaches but does not diminish the operational risks associated with service outages. European organizations with large-scale deployments of Intel Xeon processors, especially those using Intel DSA features, should consider this vulnerability in their risk assessments and incident response planning. The absence of known exploits in the wild provides a window for proactive mitigation before active attacks emerge.

References

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