Overview
CVE-2025-20765 describes a vulnerability found in the aee daemon. This vulnerability is characterized by a race condition that can potentially lead to a system crash. Exploitation requires a malicious actor to have already obtained System privileges. Successfully exploiting this vulnerability can result in a local denial of service (DoS). The vulnerability is addressed by patch ALPS10190802 and tracked internally as Issue ID MSV-4833.
Technical Details
The specific technical details of the race condition within the aee daemon are not fully disclosed, however, the nature of race conditions makes them notoriously difficult to debug and exploit. A race condition occurs when multiple processes or threads access and manipulate the same shared data concurrently, and the outcome of the execution depends on the relative order in which they execute. In this case, the concurrent access likely involves a critical resource managed by the aee daemon. When the timing is right (or wrong, from a security perspective), the race can cause the daemon to enter an unstable state, ultimately leading to a system crash. The fact that System privileges are required suggests that the vulnerable code path is only accessible to processes with those elevated permissions.
CVSS Analysis
According to the reported information, this vulnerability has a CVSS score of N/A, and severity is also listed as N/A. This suggests that a formal CVSS score hasn’t yet been calculated and assigned. This could be due to a variety of reasons, including incomplete information or a decision to handle the vulnerability through other means. However, the local denial of service impact suggests that a CVSS score would likely be moderate to high, especially if the system crash is easily reproducible.
Possible Impact
The primary impact of CVE-2025-20765 is a local denial of service. If a malicious actor has already compromised a system and obtained System privileges, they could exploit this race condition to intentionally crash the system. This could disrupt normal operations, potentially leading to data loss or downtime. Because exploitation requires System privileges, the attacker already has a significant foothold on the target system, and this vulnerability provides a means to further disrupt or destabilize the system.
Mitigation or Patch Steps
The recommended mitigation for CVE-2025-20765 is to apply the provided patch, identified as ALPS10190802. Applying this patch will resolve the underlying race condition within the aee daemon and prevent potential system crashes. System administrators should follow the vendor’s instructions for applying the patch, which may involve updating the system’s firmware or software packages. Refer to the MediaTek security bulletin for detailed patching instructions.
