VulnerabilityAwaiting Analysis

CVE-2025-20028

Time-of-check time-of-use race condition in the WheaERST SMM module for some Intel(R) reference platforms may allow an escalation of privilege.

HIGH 7.1EPSS 0.08%

Does this matter?

High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.08%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.

Description

Time-of-check time-of-use race condition in the WheaERST SMM module for some Intel(R) reference platforms may allow an escalation of privilege. System software adversary with a privileged user combined with a high complexity attack may enable escalation of privilege. This result may potentially occur via local access when attack requirements are present without special internal knowledge and requires no user interaction. The potential vulnerability may impact the confidentiality (high), integrity (high) and availability (high) of the vulnerable system, resulting in subsequent system confidentiality (none), integrity (none) and availability (none) impacts.

CVSS 4.0: 7.1 HIGHCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/M
EPSS: 0.08% probability · 0th percentile
CISA KEV: Not listed
Weakness: CWE-367
Source: secure@intel.com

References

https://intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/advisory/intel-sa-01234.html

Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.