CVE-2022-26845 is a critical vulnerability affecting firmware in Intel® Active Management Technology (AMT) before versions 11.8.93, 11.22.93, 11.12.93, 12..92, 14.1.67, 15..42, and 16.1.25. The issue, tracked under Intel’s Security Advisory INTEL-SA-00603, revolves around improper authentication. This post will break down how the bug works, illustrate exploitation steps, share code snippets, and explain why this is such a severe threat to enterprise environments.

Understanding the Vulnerability

Intel AMT is a core feature of Intel vPro—providing remote management functions _before_ the OS boots. If AMT becomes compromised, attackers get almost unrestricted, hardware-level access to the endpoint.

What’s Wrong?

The vulnerability is caused by improper authentication checks in AMT’s firmware endpoints. An unauthenticated user could exploit this by sending crafted network messages—gaining higher privileges _without_ admin credentials.

In summary

- Vulnerable AMT versions: [11.8.50 → 11.8.93), [11.22.50 → 11.22.93), [ 11.12.50 → 11.12.93), [12..50 → 12..92), [14.1.50 → 14.1.67), [15..35 → 15..42), [16.1.25)
- Potentials: Get SYSTEM/AMT control remotely via the network

Due to improper authentication, attacker bypasses password requirements

5. They escalate privileges and get admin access to AMT, possibly leading to persistence, rootkits, or complete endpoint compromise

Exploitation Breakdown

While Intel did not release full technical details (for obvious reasons), researchers and pentesters have reverse-engineered the AMT authentication and identified how to manipulate session tokens and authentication headers.

Proof of Concept (PoC) – Simplified

Here's an illustrative Python snippet (for educational purposes only!) that attempts to communicate with the AMT web interface and probe for authentication flaws:

import requests

# Target IP and AMT port
target_ip = '192.168.1.100'
target_port = 16992

# Craft HTTP request as unauthenticated user
url = f'http://{target_ip}:{target_port}/hw-sys.htm';

headers = {
    "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.",
    # Some researchers found AMT responses to 'Authorization: Digest' requests can be manipulated
    # "Authorization": <insert manipulated header>
}

try:
    resp = requests.get(url, headers=headers, timeout=5)
    if resp.status_code == 200:
        print("[+] Got HTTP 200. The page is accessible, possibly vulnerable!")
    elif resp.status_code == 401:
        print("[-] Got HTTP 401. Authentication required, might not be vulnerable.")
    else:
        print(f"[*] Got HTTP {resp.status_code}. Check details.")
except Exception as ex:
    print(f"Error: {ex}")

What to look for?

- If you can access certain AMT admin pages _without_ being prompted for credentials, the device is potentially vulnerable.
- Attackers iterate, sending hand-crafted Authorization headers or manipulate session IDs to see if privilege escalation is possible.

Intel Security Advisory:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/advisory/intel-sa-00603.html

National Vulnerability Database (NVD):

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-26845

Third-party Research:

- Positive Technologies Blog on AMT Vulns

Intel has released firmware updates for the listed platforms. Administrators should

- Upgrade AMT firmware to the latest version per vendor guidance

Conclusion

CVE-2022-26845 is a serious flaw—by abusing a broken authentication system, attackers can take over machines _before the operating system even loads_. If your business relies on Intel-powered desktops or laptops with AMT, patch now. Attackers only need network access, no credentials, to exploit unprotected endpoints.

For in-depth technical details, the above references and code provide a practical starting point for blue and red teams alike.

Timeline

Published on: 11/11/2022 16:15:00 UTC
Last modified on: 11/17/2022 13:21:00 UTC