# CVE-2025-20037: Race condition in Intel(R) Converged Security and Management Engine

> A local privileged user can exploit a race condition in Intel CSME firmware to escalate privileges.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.8 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 12 Aug 2025
- **Updated:** 26 Feb 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-ghpf-whmj-7c7x

## What is CVE-2025-20037?

CVE-2025-20037 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Intel(R) Converged Security and Management Engine, published on 12 Aug 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Time-of-check time-of-use race condition in firmware for some Intel(R) Converged Security and Management Engine may allow a privileged user to potentially enable escalation of privilege via local access.

Weakness: CWE-367 (Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-20037?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-20037?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-20037 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2025-20037 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-20037 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-20037 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-20037 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Intel(R) Converged Security and Management Engine, published on 12 Aug 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-20037 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Intel(R) Converged Security and Management Engine. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20037/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20037/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-20037
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-20037
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-20037

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20037/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.