CVE-2026-20752

Executive Summary

CVE-2026-20752 is a locally exploitable information-disclosure vulnerability in the Ring 0 (kernel-mode) component of Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi Software. A privileged local user can exploit improper authentication (CWE-287) in this driver to expose sensitive data, potentially including kernel memory contents or wireless configuration material, with no user interaction required. As of this report, no patch, proof-of-concept, or public exploit code exists, and the CVE is not listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; organizations with Intel wireless endpoints remain exposed.

Technical Analysis

The NVD description identifies three key characteristics that define the vulnerability's mechanism:

1. Flaw class — CWE-287 (Improper Authentication): The Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi Software kernel component running in Ring 0 fails to properly verify the identity or authorization level of the calling entity before servicing a request. In kernel-driver architecture, user-mode processes typically communicate with Ring 0 components through well-defined call surfaces (such as device I/O control dispatch routines). When a driver does not validate that the caller holds the appropriate privilege, token, or access mode, any process that can reach that surface — including processes running as a privileged user but outside the kernel — can invoke restricted operations.

2. Attack posture — privileged local user, low complexity: The description states the adversary is "system software with a privileged user," meaning the attacker already possesses a privileged account on the target host (for example, a compromised administrator account or a malicious service running with elevated rights). The attack requires no special internal knowledge, no prior attack requirements beyond that privilege, and no user interaction. This indicates the authentication gap is easily reachable through the driver's normal call surface; no exotic preconditions such as physical access, GUI interaction, or prior kernel compromise are needed.

3. Impact profile — confidentiality high, integrity/availability none: The CNA scores the vulnerability as having high impact to confidentiality and no impact to integrity or availability. The "subsequent system… impacts" of none for all three properties suggests the disclosure is confined to the component's data plane and does not, by itself, corrupt system state or extend to cascading compromise of the broader OS security properties.

What is not disclosed: The NVD description and CNA title do not name the specific vulnerable driver file, function, device object, IOCTL code, or data structure involved. Per our analysis rules, we do not speculate on implementation details. What can be reasoned from the vulnerability class is that the Ring 0 component likely returns sensitive information in response to a request that should have been rejected on authentication grounds — for example, exposing kernel memory buffers, wireless profile data, or credential material to a caller that has not proven entitlement to that data.

Because the affected component operates at Ring 0, any data it leaks is data that resides in, or is reachable from, kernel context. This elevates the practical severity beyond a typical user-mode authentication bypass: kernel-space disclosure can be chained with other primitives to defeat address-space layout randomization (KASLR) or to harvest secrets that user-mode sandboxes would otherwise protect.

Exploitation Scenarios

The NVD description does not provide a public PoC, and none is known to exist at the time of writing. The attack chain below is inferred strictly from the vulnerability class (CWE-287) and the NVD impact narrative; no function names, IOCTL constants, or device paths are fabricated.

Step 1 — Reconnaissance / target identification: The attacker already holds a privileged local user context on the target (e.g., a compromised domain-admin session, a maliciously installed service, or an untrusted co-tenant process running elevated). Identification of the vulnerable platform is trivial: the presence of Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi Software is discoverable via installed-programs enumeration, service listing, or driver enumeration in the Windows driver store. No network reconnaissance is relevant because the attack vector is strictly local.

Step 2 — Triggering the flaw: The attacker interacts with the Intel PROSet/Wireless Ring 0 component through the driver's legitimate call surface. Because the component performs improper authentication, requests that should require a verified and authorized caller are processed without that verification. At the vulnerability-class level, the attacker sends a series of locally invoked requests (e.g., device I/O control calls) that the kernel component accepts despite the caller lacking proper authentication for the requested operation.

Step 3 — Payload / execution method: This is not a memory-corruption or code-injection vulnerability; the disclosure is achieved by exercising the unauthenticated interface directly. The attacker crafts the parameters of the request such that the kernel component returns sensitive data — kernel pointer values, wireless configuration, or other material stored in the driver's context — to the user-mode caller. Low complexity and the absence of user interaction mean the step requires no social engineering and no synchronisation with victim activity.

Step 4 — Post-exploitation impact: Disclosed data is accumulated locally and can be exfiltrated over the network or staged for later use. If kernel pointers or memory contents are disclosed, the attacker can use them to de-randomize kernel addresses (KASLR bypass) and chain this CVE with a separate privilege-escalation or code-execution flaw to achieve full kernel compromise. If Wi-Fi credential/profile data is exposed, the attacker can use it for lateral movement or long-term persistence on the wireless network. Per the CNA, integrity and availability are unaffected by this CVE alone.

Important caveat: No public PoC is available; this scenario is inferred from the vulnerability class and the official description. The absence of a public exploit does not reduce the risk, because a low-complexity local flaw in an unpatched kernel component is well within the capability of established threat actors.

Impact Assessment

Business impact: The primary business risk is confidentiality loss of sensitive data reachable from kernel context on affected endpoints, including wireless network credentials that may grant access to corporate SSIDs and guest networks. For enterprises that rely on 802.1X / WPA-Enterprise deployments, exposed credential material could enable network-level lateral movement. Secondary risk is defense evasion: kernel memory disclosure can be chained to bypass OS exploit mitigations, increasing the efficacy of other attacks.

Affected systems: Windows hosts with Intel Wi-Fi adapters that ship with, or have installed, the Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi Software package. This includes business notebooks, convertibles, and mini-PCs common in enterprise fleets. The vendor has not published an affected version range, so all deployed versions should be treated as potentially vulnerable.

Blast radius: The exploit is local-only and requires a privileged user, which limits remote attackers unless they have already achieved a foothold. However, in shared-desk, remote-worker, or VDI-adjacent environments, a single compromised privileged account can expose data across many endpoints. The CNA subscore of C:H / I:N / A:N confirms that confidentiality is the sole impacted property, with no direct integrity or availability consequences.

Exploit likelihood: EPSS score 0.00143 (4.1st percentile) indicates a very low current probability of exploitation in the wild, and the CVE is not present in the CISA KEV catalog. Nevertheless, the vulnerability resides in a Ring 0 component with a low-complexity attack path, and the absence of a patch means the exposure window is open-ended; attacker interest tends to increase once a patch gap persists.

Detection Guidance

Detection of this vulnerability is complicated by the fact that exploitation occurs through the legitimate Intel wireless kernel driver and leaves few artifacts outside of the endpoint itself. The rules below are therefore designed to detect the observable preconditions and operational patterns around the flaw class — specifically unexpected privileged-process interaction with the Intel PROSet/Wireless component, and post-exploitation data-exfiltration behavior. Tune all rules to your environment before enabling them in alerting mode.

Sigma Rule

title: Suspicious Process Access to Intel PROSet Wireless Component
id: 7c2e93a4-5f0e-4b6b-9c2d-1e8a5f0c3b7d
status: experimental
description: >
  Detects privileged or scripting processes opening handles to binaries or modules
  associated with Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi Software, a potential precursor or
  indicator of exploitation of CVE-2026-20752 (Ring 0 information disclosure).
references:
  - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-20752
author: Valtersit Threat Intelligence
date: 2026/03/05
logsource:
  product: windows
  category: process_access
detection:
  selection:
    TargetImage|contains:
      - 'PROSet'
      - 'Wireless'
    SourceImage|contains:
      - '\Temp\'
      - '\Users\Public\'
      - 'powershell.exe'
      - 'cmd.exe'
      - 'rundll32.exe'
      - 'wmic.exe'
  filter_known_good:
    SourceImage|startswith:
      - 'C:\Program Files\Intel\'
      - 'C:\Program Files\Common Files\Intel\'
  condition: selection and not filter_known_good
falsepositives:
  - Legitimate management software that queries wireless drivers for inventory purposes
  - IT support tooling that interacts with Intel wireless utilities
level: high
tags:
  - attack.collection
  - attack.t1005
  - cve.2026-20752

YARA Rule

rule intel_proset_wireless_cve_2026_20752
{
    meta:
        author = "Valtersit Threat Intelligence"
        description = "Detects artifacts referencing the Intel PROSet/Wireless Ring 0 information disclosure (CVE-2026-20752)"
        reference = "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-20752"
        date = "2026-03-05"
        cve = "CVE-2026-20752"
    strings:
        $s1 = "PROSet" ascii wide nocase
        $s2 = "Wireless" ascii wide nocase
        $s3 = "Ring 0" ascii wide nocase
        $s4 = "DeviceIoControl" ascii wide nocase
        $s5 = "kernel" ascii wide nocase
        $s6 = "information disclosure" ascii wide nocase
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x5A4D and            // PE file (MZ header)
        2 of ($s1, $s2, $s3) and
        1 of ($s4, $s5, $s6)
}

Note: This YARA rule is deliberately broad because no public exploit sample exists. It should be used to triage suspicious executables that reference the affected product and the relevant kernel/IOCTL primitives, not as a precise exploit signature.

Suricata IDS Rule

alert tcp $HOME_NET any -> $EXTERNAL_NET any (msg:"CVE-2026-20752 Intel PROSet Wireless Data Exfiltration Attempt"; flow:to_server,established; content:"PROSet"; content:"Wireless"; classtype:attempted-recon; sid:20260752; rev:1; reference:cve,2026-20752;)

Caveat: CVE-2026-20752 is a local-access vulnerability and produces no inherent network signature. Network detection is limited to identifying post-exploitation exfiltration of wireless configuration/profile data or C2 traffic generated by a compromised host. This rule is intentionally generic and should be paired with endpoint telemetry; expect higher false-positive rates on networks with legitimate Intel wireless management traffic.

Elastic Detection

api where event.code == "10" and process.executable != null
  and target.executable != null
  and (target.executable : "*PROSet*" or target.executable : "*Wireless*")
  and (process.name : ("powershell.exe", "rundll32.exe", "cmd.exe", "wmic.exe")
        or process.executable : ("*\\Temp\\*", "*\\Users\\Public\\*"))

This EQL query consumes Sysmon EventID 10 (ProcessAccess) telemetry and flags any case where a scripting or temp-directory process opens a handle to a binary/module associated with Intel PROSet/Wireless software. Adjust the process-name list to match your environment's legitimate administration tooling.

Splunk SPL Query

index=windows sourcetype="XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational" EventCode=10
| where match(TargetImage, "(?i)PROSet|Wireless")
| eval suspicious_source = if(match(SourceImage, "(?i)\\\Temp\\|Users\\Public\\|powershell|rundll32|cmd|wmic"), "YES", "NO")
| where suspicious_source == "YES"
| stats count earliest(_time) latest(_time) by Computer, SourceImage, TargetImage, SourceProcessId
| sort - latest(_time)

The query isolates Sysmon process-access events where an unexpected or scripting process interacts with a component that includes "PROSet" or "Wireless" in its image path. Investigate any hits by reviewing the calling process's command line, parent process, and any subsequently spawned child processes.

Wazuh OSSEC Rule

<group name="windows,sysmon,">
  <rule id="100352" level="12">
    <if_sid>92050</if_sid>
    <field name="win.eventdata.targetImage">\.*(?i)PROSet|Wireless.*</field>
    <field name="win.eventdata.sourceImage">\.*(?i)\\Temp\\|\\Users\\Public\\|powershell|rundll32|cmd|wmic.*</field>
    <description>CVE-2026-20752: Suspicious access to Intel PROSet/Wireless kernel component from a privileged or scripting process</description>
    <group>cve-2026-20752,</group>
    <mitre>
      <id>T1005</id>
    </mitre>
  </rule>
</group>

This Wazuh rule references Sysmon EventID 10 (via if_sid 92050, the standard Sysmon process-access decoder). Adjust the if_sid to match your local Wazuh environment's Sysmon rule IDs, and test in a lab before production deployment.

Mitigation & Patch Guidance

Patch confidence: 0/4 — UNPATCHED. No vendor patch, advisory, or fixed version has been published by any tracked source. The following steps are recommended pending an official Intel fix.

1. Immediate mitigations:

• Treat all systems with Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi Software as at risk. Where feasible, uninstall the vendor WiFi management suite and fall back to the operating system's inbox wireless driver stack, which does not expose the vulnerable Ring 0 component.
• Enforce strict least-privilege on endpoints: remove unnecessary local administrator rights and restrict service accounts to the minimum privileges required, since the attack requires a privileged local user.
• Disable or restrict script execution (PowerShell Constrained Language Mode, AppLocker/WDAC) to reduce the availability of scripting hosts that an attacker could use to interface with the driver.
• Apply Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) / Credential Guard where supported; these isolate credential and kernel secrets so that a Ring 0 information disclosure does not trivially expose authentication material.

2. Patch/upgrade steps:

• Monitor Intel's Product Security Center (INTEL-SA advisories) and the NVD page for CVE-2026-20752 for the first patched release.
• Because no affected-version range is published, inventory all endpoints running Intel wireless software and prepare a rapid-deployment plan for the vendor fix when it arrives.
• Validate any future driver update in a pilot group before fleet-wide rollout, as wireless drivers historically require regression testing against enterprise 802.1X deployments.

3. Long-term hardening:

• Establish a driver-version baseline and enforce it via your endpoint management tooling so that vulnerable Intel wireless driver versions cannot persist.
• Enable Sysmon (EventID 10, 6, and 11) and forward to your SIEM to maintain visibility into driver access and binary modification.
• Segment networks so that a host with disclosed Wi-Fi credentials cannot directly reach Tier-0 systems; treat wireless access as an untrusted boundary.
• Integrate CVE-2026-20752 into your threat-modeling and red-team playbooks as a known local information-disclosure primitive that may be chained with privilege-escalation vulnerabilities.

References

1. NVD Entry — CVE-2026-20752: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-20752
2. Intel Product Security Center (for future INTEL-SA advisory and patch): https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/default.html
3. CWE-287 — Improper Authentication: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/287.html
4. CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog (CVE not currently listed): https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog
5. FIRST EPSS (score 0.00143, 4.1st percentile): https://www.first.org/epss/

As of the publication date, no known threat-actor campaigns, exploit-in-the-wild evidence, or active exploitation of CVE-2026-20752 have been reported, and no public PoC or exploit code is available. Exploitation scenarios presented in this report are inferred from the vulnerability class and the official NVD description.