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CVE-2025-21086VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2025-21086: Intel(R) 700 Series Ethernet · Escalation of Privilege

Affects Intel(R) 700 Series EthernetSource CVE Database V5

0

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.9 Medium : upgrade to 2.28.5 when convenient.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score
6.9Medium
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 2% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch
Available – fixed in 2.28.5
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:H

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 12 Aug 2025

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponised: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-25.

What to do

Upgrade Intel(R) 700 Series Ethernet to 2.28.5.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
Intel(R) 700 Series EthernetAffected
  • <2.28.5
Fixed in
  • 2.28.5

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2025-21086, organizations should immediately identify systems running Intel 700 Series Ethernet devices with Linux kernel-mode drivers prior to version 2.28.5. The primary mitigation is to update the driver to version 2.28.5 or later once available from Intel or the Linux distribution vendor. If you cannot patch yet, organizations should enforce strict access controls to limit the number of users with local authentication privileges, especially on critical servers and network infrastructure. Implementing robust monitoring and logging of privileged operations can help detect attempts to exploit this vulnerability. Network segmentation and least privilege principles should be applied to reduce the attack surface. Additionally, consider employing host-based intrusion detection systems (HIDS) to identify anomalous behavior indicative of privilege escalation attempts. Regularly review and update security policies to ensure that only trusted users have local access to vulnerable systems. Finally, maintain awareness of Intel security advisories and Linux kernel updates to promptly apply security patches.

Description

Improper input validation in the Linux kernel-mode driver for some Intel(R) 700 Series Ethernet before version 2.28.5 may allow an authenticated user to potentially enable escalation of privilege.

References

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