Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-32446

Intel Quickassist Technology ≤ 2.6.0-0018

Published
11 November 2025
Modified
26 November 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v4 6.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/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 0.0012 2th percentile
Risk Priority 27 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-2025-32446 is a medium-severity Untrusted Pointer Dereference (CWE-822) vulnerability in Intel Quickassist Technology. Its CVSS base score is 6.8 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 2th 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 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Untrusted pointer dereference for some Intel QuickAssist Technology software before version 2.6.0 within Ring 3: User Applications may allow an escalation of privilege. System software adversary with an authenticated user combined with a low complexity attack may enable data manipulation.…

more

This result may potentially occur via local access when attack requirements are not present without special internal knowledge and requires no user interaction. The potential vulnerability may impact the confidentiality (none), integrity (high) and availability (none) of the vulnerable system, resulting in subsequent system confidentiality (none), integrity (none) and availability (none) impacts.

CWE(s)
CWE-822

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1212 Exploitation for Credential Access Credential Access
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to collect credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-20090Same product: Intel Quickassist Technology
CVE-2025-27710Same product: Intel Quickassist Technology
CVE-2025-32732Same product: Intel Quickassist Technology
CVE-2025-24519Same product: Intel Quickassist Technology
CVE-2026-20782Same product: Intel Quickassist Technology
CVE-2024-31858Same product: Intel Quickassist Technology
CVE-2025-27713Same product: Intel Quickassist Technology
CVE-2026-20714Same product: Intel Quickassist Technology
CVE-2025-30509Same product: Intel Quickassist Technology
CVE-2023-32641Same product: Intel Quickassist Technology

Affected Assets

intel
quickassist technology
≤ 2.6.0-0018

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation good match

Developer testing and evaluation can discover instances where untrusted data is turned into a pointer and dereferenced.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

Validating all information inputs stops untrusted values from being accepted and converted into dereferenceable pointers.

SI-16 Memory Protection partial match

Memory-protection mechanisms limit the damage from an invalid pointer dereference without stopping the root coding flaw.

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 SDLC practices directly prevent introduction of untrusted pointer handling during development.

DE.CM-09 partial match
prevents

Runtime monitoring of software and data can detect adverse events resulting from exploitation of the weakness.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes can discover instances of this weakness via code review or scanning.

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 pointer-dereference flaws before release.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure development lifecycle includes pointer-safety practices that reduce untrusted pointer dereference risk.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can mandate validation of pointers obtained from untrusted sources.

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

Secure architecture principles discourage direct use of untrusted values as pointers.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards explicitly forbid dereferencing pointers derived from untrusted input.

References