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How the CVE Works
The vulnerability resides in Intel’s QuickAssist Technology (QAT) software drivers. An untrusted pointer dereference occurs when the software fails to properly validate a pointer supplied by an authenticated user from a local context. Specifically, the affected QAT kernel-mode driver does not sufficiently verify that a user-space pointer references a valid, mapped kernel memory location before dereferencing it. When a malicious local user passes a crafted, invalid pointer—such as a NULL pointer or an address pointing to unmapped or non-writable memory—the driver attempts to read from or write to this location. This leads to a kernel-level access violation (e.g., a page fault). Since the fault occurs in a privileged kernel context and is not properly handled, it triggers a system crash or a sustained denial-of-service condition, rendering the QAT service and potentially the entire system unstable or unresponsive. The flaw is exploitable only after successful local authentication.
DailyCVE Form
Platform: Intel QAT
Version: Pre-2.5.0
Vulnerability: Pointer Dereference
Severity: MEDIUM
date: 08/12/2025
Prediction: Dec 2025
What Undercode Say
Check if QAT driver is loaded lsmod | grep qat Check driver version cat /sys/class/qat/qat/version 2>/dev/null Monitor system logs for crashes dmesg | grep -i "qat|panic|Oops"
// Simplified conceptual example of the flaw
void vulnerable_ioctl(unsigned long user_ptr) {
int kernel_ptr = (int )user_ptr; // Missing validation
kernel_ptr = 0xDEADBEEF; // Dereference -> Crash if invalid
}
How Exploit
1. Attacker gains local authenticated access.
2. Crafts malicious IOCTL call with invalid pointer.
3. Passes pointer to vulnerable QAT driver function.
4. Driver dereferences pointer, causing kernel panic.
Protection from this CVE
Update to QAT software version 2.5.0 or later. Restrict local user access if update not immediately possible. Implement kernel module signing and integrity checks.
Impact
Local Denial-of-Service (system crash), service disruption for applications relying on Intel QAT acceleration (e.g., crypto, compression).
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Sources:
Reported By: nvd.nist.gov
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