Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This AMD firmware issue could let a system with a malicious BIOS trigger a race condition during sleep resume and crash availability. The provided sources describe denial of service only, not data theft or code execution. Business urgency is moderate and mainly applies to organizations managing AMD endpoint or desktop firmware at scale.
Executive priority
Track and remediate through normal firmware lifecycle unless affected systems are business-critical or broadly deployed. Escalate if OEM guidance confirms vulnerable BIOS versions in production, because firmware updates often require planning, reboot windows, and model-specific validation.
Technical view
CVE-2021-46792 is a CWE-367 TOCTOU flaw in the BIOS2PSP command. A malicious BIOS may cause the AMD Secure Processor bootloader to perform out-of-bounds SRAM reads during an S3 resume event, potentially causing denial of service. CVSS is 5.9 with high attack complexity and availability impact only.
Likely exposure
Potential exposure is limited to environments with listed AMD Ryzen and Athlon processor families and relevant AGESA firmware. The source bundle does not provide precise affected firmware versions, and entries show “various” versions with default status “unaffected,” so validate against AMD and OEM firmware guidance.
Exploitation context
The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or any cited evidence of active exploitation. The described scenario requires a malicious BIOS and a race condition on S3 resume, which increases practical difficulty. Treat this as firmware hardening and availability risk, not confirmed in-the-wild exploitation.
Researcher notes
Evidence is limited to the CVE description, CVSS data, affected-product metadata, and AMD advisory reference. Do not infer broader AMD platform exposure or exploitability beyond the malicious-BIOS S3-resume denial-of-service scenario described in the sources.
Mitigation direction
- Review AMD-SB-4001 and OEM advisories for applicable BIOS or AGESA updates.
- Apply only vendor-provided firmware updates through approved maintenance procedures.
- Inventory systems using the listed AMD Ryzen and Athlon processor families.
- Limit firmware update capability to trusted administrators and signed vendor images.
- Prioritize systems where sleep-resume reliability is operationally important.
Validation and detection
- Map hardware inventory to the AMD product families named in the advisory.
- Check current BIOS and AGESA versions against AMD or OEM guidance.
- Confirm whether affected systems support or use S3 sleep resume.
- Review endpoint telemetry for repeated resume crashes or firmware integrity alerts.
- Document systems where vendor fix status remains unclear.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-367: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2021-46792 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 5.9 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H2.23.6Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
5.9MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://www.amd.com/en/corporate/product-security/bulletin/AMD-SB-4001CVE reference · vendor-advisory
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition
Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.