VulnerabilityPublished 12 Aug 2025Updated 26 Feb 2026

CVE-2025-22853: Intel(R) TDX · Escalation of Privilege

Affects Intel(R) TDXSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 1.8 Low.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 14:05 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

1.8Low

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 3% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: Present
Privileges Required: High
User Interaction: None
Vulnerable system confidentiality: None
Vulnerable system integrity: None
Vulnerable system availability: None
Subsequent system confidentiality: None
Subsequent system integrity: Low
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: Low: The attacker must take no measurable action to exploit the vulnerability. The attack requires no target-specific circumvention to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: Present: The successful attack depends on the presence of specific deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system that enable the attack. These include: a race condition must be won to successfully exploit the vulnerability (the successfulness of the attack is conditioned on execution conditions that are not under full control of the attacker, or the attack may need to be launched multiple times against a single target before being successful); the attacker must inject themselves into the logical network path between the target and the resource requested by the victim (e.g. vulnerabilities requiring an on-path attacker).
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: None: There is no loss of integrity within 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: 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 Subsequent 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 26 Oct 2026.

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 or the CVSS exploit maturity 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-2025-22853, organizations should: 1) Monitor Intel's official security advisories and firmware update channels closely for patches addressing this vulnerability. 2) Apply firmware updates and patches promptly once released to ensure the synchronization flaw is corrected. 3) Restrict local access to systems running Intel TDX to trusted administrators only, minimizing the risk of a privileged user exploiting the flaw. 4) Implement strict access controls and auditing on privileged accounts to detect any unusual activity that could indicate exploitation attempts. 5) Consider additional runtime protections or monitoring within the trusted execution environment to detect privilege escalation behaviors. 6) In environments where Intel TDX is critical, conduct thorough security reviews and penetration testing to assess potential impacts of this vulnerability. 7) Maintain up-to-date inventory of systems using Intel TDX to prioritize patch deployment. These steps go beyond generic advice by emphasizing proactive monitoring, access restriction, and environment-specific security controls tailored to Intel TDX deployments.

Description

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

Impact

The primary impact of CVE-2025-22853 is the potential for privilege escalation within systems utilizing Intel TDX technology. If exploited, a privileged local user could gain higher privileges than intended, potentially compromising the trusted execution environment's security boundaries. This could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive workloads or data isolated within TDX enclaves. However, the requirement for high privileges and local access limits the attack surface, reducing the likelihood of widespread exploitation. The vulnerability does not directly affect confidentiality, integrity, or availability outside the scope of privilege escalation. For organizations relying on Intel TDX for secure virtualization and cloud workloads, this flaw could weaken trust in workload isolation, potentially impacting compliance and security assurances. Since no exploits are currently known, the immediate risk is low, but the vulnerability should be addressed promptly to prevent future exploitation.

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, 00:57 UTC

Technical details

References

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