Intel SGX DCAP CVE-2025-35987

Exploitation requires all of the following simultaneously: (1) local access to the target system - no remote vector exists (AV:L); (2) a privileged, kernel-level user account (PR:H, Ring 0 access); (3) high attack complexity including specialized internal knowledge of SGX DCAP internals (AC:H); and (4) specific attack conditions to be present within the DCAP environment (AT:P). Exploitation does NOT require user interaction (UI:N). The direct impact on the vulnerable system is constrained (low integrity, low availability), but exploitation must be chained to downstream systems that consume and trust the attestation output to achieve the high subsequent-system integrity impact (SI:H). Factors that limit exploitation: the requirement for pre-existing kernel privilege eliminates remote and unprivileged attackers; the AT:P condition requires special internal knowledge unavailable to generic threat actors; and the absence of public POC further reduces near-term exploitation probability.

The vendor-provided CVSS 4.0 score of 4.3 (Medium) accurately reflects the significant exploitation barriers: local access only (AV:L), high attack complexity (AC:H), high privilege prerequisite (PR:H), and specific attack conditions including specialized internal knowledge (AT:P). These constraints make opportunistic or automated exploitation implausible. However, the subsequent-system integrity impact of High (SI:H) is disproportionate to the composite score and deserves independent consideration - any system that makes trust decisions based on SGX attestation results is exposed to high-integrity compromise if attestation output is manipulated. No EPSS score, KEV listing, or POC evidence was present in the available intelligence, indicating no known active exploitation. The impact on the vulnerable system itself is limited (VI:L, VA:L), making this primarily a downstream trust-chain attack rather than a direct system compromise. Organizations operating confidential computing workloads where SGX attestation is the root of trust should treat this as a meaningful integrity risk even at a moderate composite score. CVSS 4.0 AT:P (attack requirements present) indicates that specific environmental conditions beyond just privilege must be met, further limiting realistic exploit scenarios.

A privileged insider or attacker who has already achieved kernel-level access on an SGX-enabled data center host, armed with specialized knowledge of DCAP internals, crafts inputs that exploit the security-relevant information omission, producing manipulated or incomplete attestation Quotes. A downstream cloud orchestrator or confidential workload broker that consumes those Quotes accepts the falsified trust evidence and admits an unauthorized or compromised workload, achieving high-integrity compromise of the relying system. No public exploit code has been identified at time of analysis.