Overview
The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system has recently identified a significant security flaw – CVE-2025-20046 – which has the potential to impact Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi Software users extensively. This vulnerability, affecting versions before 23.100, could potentially enable an unauthenticated user to instigate a denial of service (DoS) attack via adjacent access. Given the widespread use of Intel hardware and software, the impact of this vulnerability cannot be overstated, posing severe threats to data integrity and network availability.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-20046
Severity: High (CVSS: 8.0)
Attack Vector: Adjacent Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi Software | Before 23.100
How the Exploit Works
The CVE-2025-20046 exploit takes advantage of a use-after-free vulnerability in the Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi Software. An unauthenticated user can send specially crafted requests to a target system, potentially triggering the use of a previously freed memory object. This can result in unexpected behavior, including system crashes (leading to a denial of service) and potentially allowing the execution of arbitrary code.
Conceptual Example Code
Here’s a conceptual example demonstrating how the vulnerability might be exploited:
$ echo "malicious_payload" > /dev/socket/wifi0In this conceptual example, the attacker writes a malicious payload to a device file associated with the wireless interface, simulating the manner in which a malicious network packet might trigger the use-after-free vulnerability. Note that this is a simplified representation and actual exploitation would require more sophisticated techniques.
Recommendation
Users of the affected Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi Software are strongly urged to update their software to version 23.100 or later as soon as possible to mitigate this vulnerability. In situations where immediate patching is not feasible, the use of a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can provide temporary mitigation. However, these should not be considered as long-term solutions as they may not fully prevent exploitation of this vulnerability.