CVE-2025-22889 is a vulnerability identified in Intel Xeon 6 processors equipped with Intel Trusted Domain Extensions (TDX). The flaw arises from improper handling of overlapping protected memory ranges within the TDX environment. Intel TDX is designed to provide hardware-based isolation for virtual machines, enhancing security by protecting memory regions from unauthorized access. However, this vulnerability allows a user with existing high privileges on the local system to exploit the overlap in memory protections to escalate their privileges further. The vulnerability does not require user interaction but does require the attacker to have local privileged access, such as a local administrator or root user. The CVSS 4.0 score of 7 reflects a high severity, with attack vector local, low attack complexity, and privileges required being high. The impact on confidentiality and integrity is high because the attacker could potentially access or modify protected memory areas that should be isolated by TDX. Availability is not impacted. There are no known exploits in the wild yet, and Intel has reserved the CVE and published the details in August 2025. The vulnerability affects systems running Intel Xeon 6 processors with TDX enabled, commonly found in enterprise servers and cloud infrastructure that leverage hardware-based trusted execution environments for enhanced security.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-22889 is significant, especially for those operating data centers, cloud services, or critical infrastructure relying on Intel Xeon 6 processors with TDX. Successful exploitation could allow a privileged insider or attacker who has gained local high-level access to further escalate privileges, potentially compromising the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive data protected by TDX. This could lead to unauthorized data access, tampering with secure workloads, or undermining the trust model of hardware-based isolation. The vulnerability could affect sectors such as finance, telecommunications, government, and cloud service providers, where Intel TDX is used to secure multi-tenant environments. Although no public exploits exist yet, the risk remains high due to the potential for insider threats or attackers who have already breached perimeter defenses. The lack of impact on availability reduces the likelihood of direct service disruption but increases the risk of stealthy data breaches or persistent compromise.

Mitigation should focus on applying Intel's security patches as soon as they become available, as these will address the improper memory range handling. Until patches are released, organizations should restrict local privileged access to trusted personnel only and implement strict access controls and monitoring for any unusual privilege escalation attempts. Employing robust endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions that can detect anomalous local privilege escalations is recommended. Additionally, organizations should audit and limit the use of privileged accounts and consider implementing just-in-time privilege elevation to minimize exposure. For cloud providers and data centers, isolating workloads and enforcing strict tenant separation policies can reduce the risk of lateral movement. Regularly updating firmware and microcode for Intel processors is also critical. Finally, organizations should maintain an incident response plan that includes scenarios involving hardware-level privilege escalation.