Intel Processor Privilege Escalation Vulnerability Advisory CVE-2025-35973

Vulnerability Overview CVE ID: CVE-2025-35973 Affected Products: Certain Intel® processors Vulnerability Type: Privilege Escalation Severity: Moderate Release Date: August 11, 2026 Last Revised: August 11, 2026 Description: Certain Intel® processors exhibit improper behavior when handling values in Ring 0, kernel, hypervisor, and bare-metal OS environments, which may lead to privilege escalation. An attack requires high complexity and necessitates a privileged user combined with specific internal knowledge; no user interaction is required. The potential impacts include confidentiality (high), integrity (high), and availability (none). Affected Products Affected Products: - Intel® Core™ Ultra Processors (Series 1) - Intel® Core™ Ultra Processors (Series 2) - Intel® Core™ Ultra Processors (Series 3) - Intel® Xeon® 6 processor with P-Cores - Intel® Xeon® 6700P-B/6500P-B Series SoC with P-Cores Mitigation Recommendation: Users should update to the latest firmware version provided by their system manufacturer to address this issue. Related Resources: - Public GitHub Repository: https://github.com/intel/Intel-Linux-Processor-Microcode-Data-Files - Microcode Loading Points: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/technical/software-security-guidance/secure-coding/loading-microcode-os.html - Trusted Computing Base Recovery of Intel Trusted Execution Environments [Trusted Computing Base Recovery of Intel Trusted Execution Environments] Additional Information Acknowledgments: This issue was discovered internally by Intel employees. Thanks to Nir Solomon and Meir-haim Dahan. Disclosure Policy: Intel follows coordinated disclosure practices, which involve publicly disclosing cybersecurity vulnerabilities only after mitigations have been provided. Revision History Version 1.0: August 11, 2026, initial release Legal Disclaimer Intel provides these materials "as is" without any warranty, either express or implied. All products, dates, and specifications are based on current expectations and may change at any time. Intel products may contain known design flaws or errors, called errata, which may cause the product to deviate from published specifications. Products that have reached the end of service updates may no longer receive feature and security updates. The functionality and benefits of Intel technologies depend on system configuration and may require hardware, software, or service activation. Performance varies depending on system configuration. Some results are estimated or simulated and are for informational purposes only. Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel trademarks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Report a Vulnerability For security concerns or vulnerabilities related to Intel-branded products or technologies, please submit reports via the Intigriti platform. For issues related to external Intel websites, please contact Intel’s External Security Research team. Need Product Support? Visit Support & Downloads for assistance.

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Intel Processor Privilege Escalation Vulnerability Advisory CVE-2025-35973