# CVE-2025-54518: Privilege escalation in AMD EPYC™ 7002 Series Processors > Attackers can corrupt instructions across privilege levels via CPU cache isolation flaws, enabling privilege escalation on AMD Zen 2 processors. - **Severity:** High 7.3 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`) - **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:** Yes - **Published:** 15 May 2026 - **Updated:** 10 Sep 2026 - **Also known as:** ALPINE-CVE-2025-54518, ALSA-2026:50978, ALSA-2026:50979, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-54518, GHSA-wrmr-crjv-w33g, RHSA-2026:50978, RHSA-2026:50979, RLSA-2026:50978, RLSA-2026:50979, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-54518, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-54518, RXSA-2026:50978, SUSE-SU-2026:1933-1, SUSE-SU-2026:2212-1, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-54518, openSUSE-SU-2026:10800-1 ## 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 (Insufficient Granularity of Access Control), CWE-1189 (Improper Isolation of Shared Resources on System-on-a-Chip (SoC)) ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-54518? | Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | `bpftool` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-abi-stablelists` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-core` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-cross-headers` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-debug` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-debug-core` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-debug-devel` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-debug-modules` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-debug-modules-extra` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-devel` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-doc` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-headers` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-modules` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-modules-extra` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-rt` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10 | | `kernel-rt-core` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10 | | `kernel-rt-debug` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10 | | `kernel-rt-debug-core` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10 | | `kernel-rt-debug-devel` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10 | | `kernel-rt-debug-modules` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10 | | `kernel-rt-debug-modules-extra` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10 | | `kernel-rt-devel` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10 | | `kernel-rt-modules` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10 | | `kernel-rt-modules-extra` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.rt7.494.el8_10 | | `kernel-tools` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-tools-libs` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-tools-libs-devel` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-zfcpdump` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-zfcpdump-core` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-zfcpdump-devel` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-zfcpdump-modules` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-zfcpdump-modules-extra` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `perf` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `python3-perf` | AlmaLinux:8 | All versions | 4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `bpftool` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `bpftool-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-abi-stablelists` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.153.1.el8_10 | | `kernel-core` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos | All versions | 0:4.18.0-553.153.1.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. ## Fix prompt for AI coding agents ```text Check this codebase for CVE-2025-54518 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: 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. Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-54518 in the wild and no public exploit code. Affected product: AMD EPYC™ 7002 Series Processors. 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-2025-54518/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-54518/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-54518 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-54518 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-54518 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-54518/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.