Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-21090

Published
12 August 2025
Modified
17 June 2026
CVSS Score v4 4.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:P/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/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/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0014 4th percentile
Risk Priority 17 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2025-21090 is a medium-severity Missing Reference to Active Allocated Resource (CWE-771) vulnerability in Intel (inferred from references). Its CVSS base score is 4.1 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked at the 4th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Missing reference to active allocated resource for some Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors may allow an authenticated user to potentially enable denial of service via local access.

CWE(s)
CWE-771

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-20244Shared CWE-771
CVE-2026-20004Shared CWE-771
CVE-2024-56343Shared CWE-771
CVE-2026-3039Shared CWE-771

Affected Assets

Intel
—
inferred from references and description; NVD did not file a CPE for this CVE

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V7.4.5

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and evaluation can discover missing references to allocated resources through dynamic analysis or fuzzing.

SA-15 Development Process, Standards, and Tools partial match

Requiring a documented development process and standards can mandate use of safe resource-management idioms and tools.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Security engineering principles include disciplined resource allocation and deallocation patterns that stop lost references from being introduced.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure development practices directly prevent lost resource references via coding standards, reviews, and tooling.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing can detect missing references to allocated resources before deployment.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development lifecycle practices can include resource-management rules that prevent missing references.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure system architecture principles can mandate explicit resource tracking and release mechanisms.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards can require proper reference maintenance for allocated resources.

A.8.9 Configuration management partial match
degrades

Configuration management can enforce proper tracking of allocated resources and their references.

References