CVE-2025-54518 Privilege escalation in AMD EPYC™ 7002 Series Processors

High 7.3 Published Updated

Attackers can corrupt instructions across privilege levels via CPU cache isolation flaws, enabling privilege escalation on AMD Zen 2 processors.

Exploited in the wild
Not known
Login needed
Any signed-in user
Attackable
Local or same network only
Victim action needed
Not needed
Fix
Available

What is CVE-2025-54518?

CVE-2025-54518 is a high-severity vulnerability in AMD EPYC™ 7002 Series Processors, published on 15 May 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

Improper isolation of shared resources within the CPU operation cache on Zen 2-based products could allow an attacker to corrupt instructions executed at a different privilege level, potentially resulting in privilege escalation.

Weakness: CWE-1220, CWE-1189

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-54518?

Linux distribution packages (40)
bpftool AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-abi-stablelists AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-core AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-cross-headers AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-debug AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-debug-core AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-debug-devel AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-debug-modules AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-debug-modules-extra AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-devel AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-doc AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-headers AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-modules AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-modules-extra AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-rt AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10
kernel-rt-core AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10
kernel-rt-debug AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10
kernel-rt-debug-core AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10
kernel-rt-debug-devel AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10
kernel-rt-debug-modules AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10
kernel-rt-debug-modules-extra AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10
kernel-rt-devel AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10
kernel-rt-modules AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10
kernel-rt-modules-extra AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10
kernel-tools AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-tools-libs AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-tools-libs-devel AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-zfcpdump AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-zfcpdump-core AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-zfcpdump-devel AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-zfcpdump-modules AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-zfcpdump-modules-extra AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
perf AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
python3-perf AlmaLinux:8All versions4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
bpftool Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseosAll versions0:4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
bpftool-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseosAll versions0:4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseosAll versions0:4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-abi-stablelists Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseosAll versions0:4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10
kernel-core Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseosAll versions0:4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10

How do I fix CVE-2025-54518?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2025-54518 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-54518 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2025-54518, ALSA-2026:50978, ALSA-2026:50979, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-54518, GHSA-wrmr-crjv-w33g, RHSA-2026:50978 and 10 more.

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