CVE-2025-30508 is a vulnerability in Intel Quick Assist Technology (QAT) present on some Intel platforms that operate at the kernel level (Ring 0). The flaw is due to improper authorization checks within the QAT driver or firmware, which allows an unprivileged but authenticated local user to trigger a denial of service condition. The attack complexity is low, requiring no user interaction and no special internal knowledge beyond authenticated local access. The vulnerability specifically affects system availability by causing a denial of service, potentially crashing or halting affected systems or services that rely on Intel QAT for hardware acceleration of cryptographic and compression workloads. There is no impact on confidentiality or integrity, as the vulnerability does not allow data leakage or unauthorized modification. The CVSS 4.0 vector indicates local attack vector (AV:L), low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required beyond authenticated user (PR:L), no user interaction (UI:N), and high impact on availability (VA:H). No known exploits have been reported in the wild yet, but the vulnerability is publicly disclosed and assigned a medium severity rating. The affected versions are not explicitly listed but pertain to Intel platforms supporting QAT. The vulnerability is significant for environments that rely heavily on Intel QAT, such as data centers, cloud providers, and enterprise servers, where denial of service could disrupt critical operations.

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2025-30508 is the potential disruption of services due to denial of service conditions on affected Intel platforms. Enterprises and data centers using Intel Quick Assist Technology for cryptographic acceleration or compression may experience system crashes or degraded performance, leading to downtime and operational interruptions. This could affect sectors such as finance, telecommunications, healthcare, and government services that depend on high availability and secure communications. Although confidentiality and integrity are not compromised, availability issues can result in financial losses, reputational damage, and compliance challenges under regulations like GDPR, which require maintaining service continuity. The vulnerability's requirement for local authenticated access somewhat limits remote exploitation risks but raises concerns about insider threats or compromised user accounts within organizations. Therefore, the impact is particularly relevant for environments with multiple users or shared access to critical systems.

1. Apply official patches or firmware updates from Intel as soon as they become available to address the improper authorization flaw in Quick Assist Technology. 2. Restrict local access to systems running Intel QAT to trusted and authorized personnel only, minimizing the risk of exploitation by unprivileged users. 3. Implement strict user account management and monitoring to detect and prevent unauthorized or suspicious local logins. 4. Employ host-based intrusion detection systems (HIDS) to monitor for unusual system behavior or crashes related to QAT components. 5. Consider isolating critical systems using Intel QAT in secure network segments with limited user access. 6. Regularly audit and review system logs for signs of attempted exploitation or denial of service conditions. 7. Educate system administrators and security teams about the vulnerability and its exploitation vectors to improve incident response readiness.