Report · GCP Compute Engine SecurityAbout CVE-2025-10263Published 26 Oct 2026

GCP-2026-036

Source GCP Compute Engine Security

Authoritative record:CVE-2025-10263· Critical 9.1

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 9.1 Critical.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 22:13 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

9.1Critical

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

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

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

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

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
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: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to 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 Jun 2026
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.

cloud

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
ArmC1-Ultra	Affected =0	Fixed in–
ArmC1-Premium	Affected =0	Fixed in–
ArmNeoverse V3	Affected =0	Fixed in–
ArmNeoverse V3AE	Affected =0	Fixed in–
ArmNeoverse V1	Affected =0	Fixed in–
ArmNeoverse N2	Affected =0	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

Google has secured the cloud infrastructure against VM-to-VM and VM-to-hypervisor attacks. However, customers must obtain and apply guest OS-level patches from their operating system vendors to mitigate this vulnerability within the guest environment. For Container-Optimized OS, mitigations are in progress and will be included in future COS release notes. Users running affected Arm-based instances (C4A, T2A, A4X, A4X Max) should upgrade their guest OS images to patched versions as they become available and coordinate with their distro vendors for updates addressing CVE-2025-10263.

Description

CVE-2025-10263 is an architectural vulnerability in certain Arm cores (Neoverse V1, V2, N1) used in Google Cloud Arm-based instances. It allows an attacker at a lower exception level to write to memory owned by a higher exception level, enabling privilege escalation. This flaw does not affect memory reads. Google has secured the infrastructure against VM-to-VM and VM-to-hypervisor attacks, but guest OS-level patches from OS vendors are required to mitigate threats within the guest environment. Mitigations for Container-Optimized OS are in progress.

Impact

The vulnerability enables privilege escalation by allowing writes from a lower exception level to memory owned by a higher exception level, potentially compromising guest OS security boundaries. It does not affect memory reads. Google Cloud infrastructure is protected against VM-to-VM and VM-to-hypervisor attacks, but guest OS environments remain vulnerable without patches. This could allow attackers to escalate privileges within the guest environment, impacting process and kernel security.

References

docs.cloud.google.com/compute/docs/security-bulletins (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 26 Oct 2026, 22:13 UTC

Technical details

References

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