# 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.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.1 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 16 Apr 2026
- **Updated:** 27 May 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-2h3v-69mw-9j56

## 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 (Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password)

## 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.

## Is CVE-2025-36579 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-36579 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-36579 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-36579 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Dell Alienware 16 Area-51 AA16250. 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-2025-36579/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-36579/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-36579
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-36579
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-36579

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-36579/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.