CVE-2025-32037 in PresentMon
Summary
by MITRE • 11/11/2025
Improper access control for some Intel(R) PresentMon before version 2.3.1 within Ring 3: User Applications may allow a denial of service. Network adversary with a privileged user combined with a high complexity attack may enable denial of service. This result may potentially occur via adjacent access when attack requirements are not present without special internal knowledge and requires no user interaction. The potential vulnerability may impact the confidentiality (none), integrity (none) and availability (low) of the vulnerable system, resulting in subsequent system confidentiality (none), integrity (none) and availability (none) impacts.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/11/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-32037 affects Intel(R) PresentMon software versions prior to 2.3.1, specifically within the Ring 3 user application context. This represents a critical access control flaw that enables unauthorized denial of service conditions when exploited by adversaries with privileged user accounts. The vulnerability stems from inadequate authorization mechanisms that fail to properly validate access permissions for system resources, creating a pathway for malicious actors to disrupt normal system operations.
The technical implementation of this flaw involves improper access control checks within the user application layer, where the software fails to adequately enforce security boundaries between different privilege levels. This weakness allows a network adversary who has already compromised a privileged user account to leverage the vulnerability for denial of service attacks. The attack complexity is classified as high, indicating that exploitation requires significant technical expertise and specific conditions, though the actual execution remains feasible within the compromised environment. The vulnerability can be triggered through adjacent access methods, meaning that an attacker with physical or network proximity to the target system can exploit the flaw without requiring extensive external network capabilities.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates a low-level availability threat to the affected system while maintaining complete confidentiality and integrity impacts at zero. The system's availability is compromised through denial of service conditions that can disrupt normal application functionality and potentially cause system instability. The lack of confidentiality and integrity impacts suggests that the vulnerability does not enable data leakage or modification capabilities, though the availability disruption can still severely impact system usability. The requirement for special internal knowledge indicates that successful exploitation requires understanding of specific system configurations or internal processes, making it less accessible to casual attackers but still dangerous for targeted operations.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-284, which specifically addresses improper access control issues in software implementations. This classification emphasizes the fundamental flaw in privilege management and authorization enforcement within the application layer. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving privilege escalation and denial of service operations, potentially enabling adversaries to maintain persistent access while disrupting system services. The attack vector requires a pre-existing privileged user account, which aligns with initial access techniques in the ATT&CK matrix, followed by privilege abuse and service disruption methods.
Mitigation strategies should focus on immediate software updates to version 2.3.1 or later, which would address the underlying access control implementation issues. System administrators should also implement additional monitoring for unusual access patterns and privilege usage, particularly around user applications that interface with system resources. Network segmentation and access control policies should be reviewed to minimize the potential impact of compromised privileged accounts. The vulnerability's design flaw suggests that comprehensive code review and security testing of similar access control implementations should be conducted to identify and remediate analogous weaknesses. Organizations should also consider implementing runtime protection mechanisms that can detect and prevent unauthorized access attempts to system resources, particularly in environments where privileged accounts may be compromised.