Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 devices through 2020-10-19 have improper protection against physical side channels. The flash read-out protection (APPROTECT) can be bypassed by injecting a fault during the boot phase.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2020-27211 is rated Low Risk (29.7/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.28%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).
| # | Date | Old EPSS score | New EPSS score | Delta (New - Old) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026-06-15 | 0.04% | 0.28% | +0.23% |
| 2 | 2026-02-01 | 0.08% | 0.04% | -0.04% |
| 3 | 2025-03-30 | — | 0.08% | — |
Full EPSS history (10 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.7 | 3.1 | MEDIUM |
|
0.5 | 5.2 | [email protected] |
| 3.3 | 2.0 | LOW |
|
3.4 | 4.9 | [email protected] |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| nordicsemi | nrf52840_firmware | <= 2020-10-19 | cpe:2.3:o:nordicsemi:nrf52840_firmware:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| URL | Tags |
|---|---|
| https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/640 | Third Party Advisory |
| https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/pdf/in_133_v1.0.pdf | Third Party Advisory |
| https://limitedresults.com/2020/06/nrf52-debug-resurrection-approtect-bypass/ | Third Party Advisory |
| https://www.aisec.fraunhofer.de/de/das-institut/wissenschaftliche-exzellenz/security-and-trust-in-open-source-security-tokens.html | Third Party Advisory |
| https://www.aisec.fraunhofer.de/en/FirmwareProtection.html | Third Party Advisory |