CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2025-51060

Improper Access Control

Published: Aug 05, 2025 | Modified: Aug 05, 2025
CVSS 3.x
N/A
Source:
NVD
CVSS 2.x
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu

An issue was discovered in CPUID cpuz.sys 1.0.5.4. An attacker can use DeviceIoControl with the unvalidated parameters 0x9C402440 and 0x9C402444 as IoControlCodes to perform RDMSR and WRMSR, respectively. Through this process, the attacker can modify MSR_LSTAR and hook KiSystemCall64. Afterward, using Return-Oriented Programming (ROP), the attacker can manipulate the stack with pre-prepared gadgets, disable the SMAP flag in the CR4 register, and execute a user-mode syscall handler in the kernel context. It has not been confirmed whether this works on 32-bit Windows, but it functions on 64-bit Windows if the core isolation feature is either absent or disabled.

Weakness

The product does not restrict or incorrectly restricts access to a resource from an unauthorized actor.

Extended Description

Access control involves the use of several protection mechanisms such as:

When any mechanism is not applied or otherwise fails, attackers can compromise the security of the product by gaining privileges, reading sensitive information, executing commands, evading detection, etc. There are two distinct behaviors that can introduce access control weaknesses:

Potential Mitigations

  • Compartmentalize the system to have “safe” areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area.
  • Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.

References