CVE-2025-21096VulnerabilityPublished 12 Aug 2025Updated 26 Feb 2026

CVE-2025-21096: Intel(R) TDX · Escalation of Privilege

Affects Intel(R) TDXSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 2.0 Low.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

2.0Low

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.

CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: High
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: High
User Interaction: None
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None
Vulnerable system integrity: Low
Vulnerable system availability: None
Subsequent system confidentiality: None
Subsequent system integrity: None
Subsequent system availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable system is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or through terminal emulation (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., using social engineering techniques to trick a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: High: The successful attack depends on the evasion or circumvention of security-enhancing techniques in place that would otherwise hinder the attack. These include: Evasion of exploit mitigation techniques, for example, circumvention of address space randomization (ASLR) or data execution prevention (DEP) must be performed for the attack to be successful; Obtaining target-specific secrets. The attacker must gather some target-specific secret before the attack can be successful. A secret is any piece of information that cannot be obtained through any amount of reconnaissance. To obtain the secret the attacker must perform additional attacks or break otherwise secure measures (e.g. knowledge of a secret key may be needed to break a crypto channel). This operation must be performed for each attacked target.
Attack Requirements: None: The successful attack does not depend on the deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system. The attacker can expect to be able to reach the vulnerability and execute the exploit under all or most instances of the vulnerability.
Privileges Required: High: The attacker requires privileges that provide significant (e.g., administrative) control over the vulnerable system allowing full access to the vulnerable system’s settings and files.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without interaction from any human user, other than the attacker.
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system integrity: Low: Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact to the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Subsequent System or all confidentiality impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Subsequent System or all integrity impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Subsequent System or all availability impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v4.0 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 12 Aug 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by 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 2026-10-26.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2025-21096, organizations should: 1) Restrict privileged local access strictly to trusted administrators and monitor for any unauthorized privilege escalations or suspicious activities. 2) Apply firmware updates and patches from Intel as soon as they become available to address the buffer restriction flaw. 3) Employ defense-in-depth strategies such as multi-factor authentication for privileged accounts and enhanced logging to detect potential exploitation attempts. 4) Conduct regular security audits and vulnerability assessments focusing on firmware and hardware security components. 5) Isolate critical workloads and sensitive environments to limit the impact of any potential privilege escalation. 6) Collaborate with Intel and cloud service providers to stay informed about updates and advisories related to Intel TDX vulnerabilities. These steps go beyond generic advice by emphasizing proactive monitoring, strict access controls, and timely patch management specific to firmware vulnerabilities in hardware-based security technologies.

Description

Improper buffer restrictions in the firmware for some Intel(R) TDX may allow a privileged user to potentially enable escalation of privilege via local access.

Impact

The potential impact of CVE-2025-21096 is primarily an escalation of privilege within systems running Intel TDX firmware. Since exploitation requires existing privileged local access, the vulnerability does not directly enable remote attacks or initial compromise. However, if exploited, it could allow attackers to gain higher privileges, potentially leading to unauthorized access to sensitive data, modification of system configurations, or disruption of secure workload isolation. This could undermine the security guarantees provided by Intel TDX, affecting confidentiality and integrity of protected workloads. For organizations using Intel TDX in cloud or enterprise environments, this could translate into increased risk of insider threats or lateral movement by attackers who have already breached perimeter defenses. The limited exploitability and absence of known active exploits reduce immediate risk, but the vulnerability remains a concern for high-security environments where strict privilege separation is critical.

References

intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/advisory/intel-sa-01312.html (opens in a new tab)

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 27 Feb 2026, 00:44 UTC

Technical details

References

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