Intel’s collaboration with Google has led to the revelation of significant security flaws within its Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) technology. This comprehensive audit uncovered various vulnerabilities, bugs, and suggestions for improvement, highlighting potential risks in cloud and multi-tenant environments.
Background on TDX Technology
Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) is a hardware-based technology developed by Intel to ensure the security of sensitive workloads and data. Its primary function is to protect information even when the hypervisor or insiders are compromised. TDX achieves this by creating Confidential Virtual Machines, which are isolated to maintain both confidentiality and integrity.
Details of the Security Audit
Over a period of five months in 2025, Intel’s INT31 team, along with Google Cloud Security experts, conducted an in-depth analysis of TDX Module 1.5. Using a combination of manual reviews, custom tools, and AI, they identified critical vulnerabilities as well as areas for potential enhancement. The collaboration resulted in the discovery of five key vulnerabilities and 35 additional bugs and weaknesses.
Intel acted swiftly to address these issues, releasing patches concurrently with a public advisory. The vulnerabilities have been cataloged under various CVEs, including CVE-2025-32007 and CVE-2025-30513, and pose risks such as privilege escalation and information leaking.
Implications of the Findings
A particular vulnerability, CVE-2025-30513, gained attention for its potential to undermine TDX security guarantees completely. Google elaborated on how this flaw allows an untrusted host to alter a Trust Domain’s attributes during migration, compromising its security. This can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data, posing significant threats during the lifecycle of a Trust Domain.
To provide further insight into the audit’s findings, Google released an extensive technical report. Concurrently, Intel published a blog post summarizing the research project, emphasizing their swift response in mitigating the identified risks.
Future Outlook and Industry Impact
This security audit underscores the critical importance of continuous security evaluations in maintaining robust cloud computing environments. The proactive measures taken by Intel and Google reflect a commitment to enhancing cybersecurity standards. As the industry evolves, such collaborations will be essential to safeguard sensitive data against emerging threats.
In the wake of these findings, further scrutiny of similar technologies is expected, emphasizing the need for comprehensive security strategies across the industry.
