Intel NPU Driver CVE-2026-20718

Exploitation requires local access to a system with an Intel NPU Driver installer version prior to 32.0.100.4511 installed. The attacker must hold an authenticated low-privileged user account (PR:L) - anonymous or unauthenticated access is insufficient. Attack complexity is high (AC:H) with specific attack target prerequisites (AT:P), meaning particular conditions in the target environment - such as a service or scheduled task running under elevated privileges that references the misconfigured files - must be present. Active user interaction is also required (UI:A), meaning exploitation cannot be fully automated without triggering some privileged user or process action. What limits exploitation: absence of Intel NPU hardware, patched installer version, OS-enforced ACLs overriding the installer's defaults, lack of a privileged process referencing the vulnerable file paths, or absence of a concurrent user session to provide the required interaction trigger.

Despite the CVSS 4.0 base score of 5.4 (Medium), the theoretical maximum impact is full C:H/I:H/A:H on the vulnerable system. The score is moderated by a constellation of mitigating metrics: local attack vector (AV:L), high attack complexity (AC:H), prerequisite attack targets (AT:P), low but present privilege requirement (PR:L), and mandatory active user interaction (UI:A). EPSS at 0.01% (1st percentile) is consistent with no observed exploitation in the wild. SSVC confirms exploitation as 'none' and marks automatable as 'no', meaning mass exploitation campaigns are not feasible. Technical Impact is rated 'total' by SSVC, which aligns with the C/I/A:H impact metrics but reflects worst-case post-exploitation outcome rather than ease of exploitation. The combination of low EPSS, no KEV listing, no POC, high complexity, and local-only access makes this a low-urgency remediation for most organizations, though systems running Intel NPU hardware in sensitive or multi-tenant environments should prioritize patching. No conflicting signals are present across available data sources.

A local authenticated user with standard (low) privileges on a system with an Intel NPU identifies that the NPU driver installer has set world-writable or user-writable permissions on sensitive driver components in Ring 3. The attacker replaces or modifies one of these components with a malicious payload timed to execute when a higher-privileged process (such as a service or administrator-initiated action) interacts with the component, completing the privilege escalation. No public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis, and the high-complexity requirement with mandatory user interaction reduces the practical likelihood of opportunistic exploitation.