Introduction
Privilege boundaries in cloud and enterprise environments depend on the integrity of hardware memory isolation. A newly disclosed vulnerability in Intel Xeon 6 processors with Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) puts these boundaries at risk, allowing privileged local attackers to potentially bypass TDX protections and escalate privileges.
Intel is a global leader in processor technology, with Xeon CPUs forming the backbone of data centers and confidential computing solutions worldwide. Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) is Intel's hardware-based confidential computing feature, designed to isolate virtual machine workloads from the hypervisor and other system software. Security flaws in TDX directly impact the trust model of cloud and enterprise infrastructure.
Technical Information
CVE-2025-22889 is classified as CWE-1260: Improper Handling of Overlap Between Protected Memory Ranges. The vulnerability is present in Intel Xeon 6 processors that support TDX. The core issue lies in how the processor and TDX firmware manage memory region boundaries for protected domains.
TDX introduces Trust Domain Memory Regions (TDMRs) for isolating guest VM memory from the host and other VMs. These TDMRs are carved from Convertible Memory Regions (CMRs) managed by the hypervisor. The vulnerability arises when the logic responsible for validating memory region boundaries fails to detect or prevent overlaps between regions assigned to different privilege levels or security domains. If an attacker with local privileged access (such as a compromised hypervisor or VMM) can manipulate memory region definitions to create overlaps, they may gain unauthorized access to protected TDX memory.
This flaw undermines the isolation guarantees of TDX, as it may allow a privileged user to read or modify data within a guest's protected memory. Prior joint security reviews by Intel and Microsoft have documented similar weaknesses in TDX's memory range validation, including missing sanity checks and integer overflow vulnerabilities. However, CVE-2025-22889 specifically concerns the overlap of protected memory ranges rather than arithmetic errors.
No vulnerable code snippets or public exploitation details are available as of this writing.
Affected Systems and Versions
- Intel Xeon 6 processors with Intel Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) support
- Only systems where TDX is enabled and used for workload isolation are affected
- No additional version ranges or microcode versions are specified in public advisories as of this writing
Vendor Security History
Intel's confidential computing technologies, including SGX and TDX, have experienced several high-impact vulnerabilities in recent years. Notable examples include:
- INTEL-SA-01268: Memory management flaws in Xeon 6 processors with TDX or SGX
- INTEL-SA-01278: Memory controller configuration vulnerabilities in Xeon 6
- Multiple issues documented in the Intel-Microsoft TDX joint security review
Intel typically issues coordinated advisories and microcode updates, but the complexity of TDX has led to challenges in timely patching and validation. The frequency of memory management vulnerabilities suggests ongoing architectural and implementation risks in these features.