CVE-2017-5926 Intel CVE debrief

Who should care

Security teams responsible for browsers, endpoint hardening, and systems using the CPU models listed in NVD should pay attention, especially where untrusted JavaScript can execute. Fleet owners should also review vendor and academic references for mitigation guidance.

Technical summary

The supplied description says MMU page table walks leave observable traces in the last-level cache on modern AMD processors, enabling a side-channel attack during address translation. NVD also lists affected CPEs spanning multiple CPU families and platforms, including AMD, Intel, NVIDIA Tegra, and Samsung Exynos models. The stated impact is confidentiality loss: leaking data and code pointers from JavaScript and undermining ASLR. NVD maps the weakness to CWE-200.

Defensive priority

High. The record assigns CVSS 3.0 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N, indicating meaningful confidentiality risk without requiring privileges.

Recommended defensive actions

• Inventory systems matching the affected CPEs listed in NVD and track them for vendor guidance.
• Review the linked academic paper and VUSEC project page for any documented mitigations or hardening recommendations.
• Prioritize defensive updates for environments that routinely execute untrusted JavaScript, such as web-facing endpoints and browser-heavy fleets.
• Validate whether your asset inventory includes the specific processor models named in the NVD record before planning remediation.

Evidence notes

The CVE record was published on 2017-02-27 and later modified on 2026-05-13 in the supplied corpus. The NVD metadata describes the issue as a cache side channel in MMU page table walks and assigns CVSS 3.0 7.5 High with CWE-200. The referenced sources include an NDSS paper and the VUSEC project page, which support the technical description. The corpus also shows a broad CPE list rather than a single-vendor scope, so vendor attribution should be treated cautiously.

Official resources