CVE-2025-36579 Auth bypass in Alienware 16 Area-51 AA16250
An attacker with physical access can bypass BIOS password recovery mechanisms to gain unauthorized access to Dell Alienware systems.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2025-36579?
CVE-2025-36579 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in Dell Alienware 16 Area-51 AA16250, published on 16 Apr 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Dell Client Platform BIOS contains a Weak Password Recovery Mechanism vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker with physical access to the system could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to unauthorized access.
Weakness: CWE-640
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-36579?
How do I fix CVE-2025-36579?
No fix has been published for CVE-2025-36579 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.
Is CVE-2025-36579 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-36579 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-2h3v-69mw-9j56.