CVE-2025-9612VulnerabilityPublished 9 Dec 2025Updated 11 Dec 2025

CVE-2025-9612: PCI Express Integrity and Data Encryption (PCIe IDE) Specification · Improper Resource Shutdown or Release

Affects PCI Express Integrity and Data Encryption (PCIe IDE) SpecificationSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.1 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 07:57 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

5.1Medium

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:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: Low
Integrity: Low
Availability: None

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

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component 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 remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: Low: There is some loss of confidentiality. Access to some restricted information is obtained, but the attacker does not have control over what information is obtained, or the amount or kind of loss is limited. The information disclosure does not cause a direct, serious loss to the impacted component.
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 on the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 9 Dec 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

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
PCI-SIG PCI Express Integrity and Data Encryption (PCIe IDE) Specification	Affected =0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

Mitigation of CVE-2025-9612 requires a multi-layered approach beyond generic advice. First, organizations should conduct a thorough hardware and firmware audit to verify that PCIe devices implementing IDE encryption enforce strict TLP ordering and tag uniqueness as per best practices, even if the specification lacks explicit guidance. Vendors should be engaged to provide firmware updates or design revisions addressing this flaw. Second, implement enhanced monitoring and anomaly detection on PCIe bus traffic to identify unusual packet reordering or replay attempts, using hardware performance counters or specialized PCIe bus analyzers. Third, enforce strict physical security controls to limit local or physical access to systems with vulnerable PCIe devices, including secure server rooms and tamper-evident seals. Fourth, segment critical systems to minimize the risk of lateral movement by attackers with physical access. Finally, maintain up-to-date inventories of PCIe hardware and track vendor advisories for patches or specification updates. Organizations should also consider deploying endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions capable of detecting suspicious hardware-level anomalies. Collaboration with PCI-SIG and hardware vendors to accelerate specification clarifications and patch development is essential.

Description

An issue was discovered in the PCI Express (PCIe) Integrity and Data Encryption (IDE) specification, where insufficient guidance on Transaction Layer Packet (TLP) ordering and tag uniqueness may allow encrypted packets to be replayed or reordered without detection. This can enable local or physical attackers on the PCIe bus to violate data integrity protections.

Impact

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2025-9612 is the potential violation of data integrity on systems using PCIe IDE for encrypted communications. This can lead to undetected tampering or replay of sensitive data transmitted over the PCIe bus, which is critical in environments handling financial transactions, personal data, or industrial control systems. While confidentiality and availability are not directly compromised, integrity violations can cause erroneous processing, data corruption, or unauthorized command execution. Sectors such as finance, telecommunications, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure are particularly at risk due to their reliance on PCIe-based hardware accelerators, network cards, or storage controllers implementing PCIe IDE. The requirement for local or physical access reduces the likelihood of remote exploitation but raises concerns about insider threats and physical security. The absence of known exploits and patches means organizations must proactively evaluate their exposure and implement compensating controls. Failure to address this vulnerability could undermine trust in hardware security measures and lead to compliance issues with European data protection regulations if data integrity is compromised.

CWE-404Improper Resource Shutdown or Release (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: Medium
The product does not release or incorrectly releases a resource before it is made available for re-use.
Requirements · Language Selection
Use a language that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
Implementation
It is good practice to be responsible for freeing all resources you allocate and to be consistent with how and where you free memory in a function. If you allocate memory that you intend to free upon completion of the function, you must be sure to free the memory at all exit points for that function including error…
Implementation
Memory should be allocated/freed using matching functions such as malloc/free, new/delete, and new[]/delete[].
Attack patterns
TCP Fragmentation (opens in a new tab)
UDP Fragmentation (opens in a new tab)
ICMP Fragmentation (opens in a new tab)
BlueSmacking (opens in a new tab)
Flooding (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 16 Dec 2025, 20:07 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-404

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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