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Incorrect Default PermissionsWeakness · CWE-276

CVE-2025-31655

MEDIUM · 6.7 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-02-10
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
67/100
Remediation priority · Elevated

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Incorrect default permissions for some Intel(R) Battery Life Diagnostic Tool within Ring 3: User Applications may allow an escalation of privilege. Unprivileged software adversary with an authenticated user combined with a high complexity attack may enable escalation of privilege. This result may potentially occur via local access when attack requirements are present without special internal knowledge and requires active user interaction. The potential vulnerability may impact the confidentiality (high), integrity (high) and availability (high) of the vulnerable system, resulting in subsequent system confidentiality (none), integrity (none) and availability (none) impacts.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

Intel Battery Life Diagnostic Tool has incorrect default permissions in Ring 3 (user mode) that can be exploited by an unprivileged authenticated user for local privilege escalation. The vulnerability requires high-complexity attack with active user interaction, enabling the adversary to gain elevated privileges on the affected system.

MitigationApply vendor-provided patch when available; otherwise, restrict or remove the Intel Battery Life Diagnostic Tool until a fix is deployed, or remediate the incorrect file/registry permissions that enable privilege escalation.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
High
Privileges
Low
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify Intel Battery Life Diagnostic Tool is installed
    Check for the presence of the Intel Battery Life Diagnostic Tool on the system. Look for the executable (typically named 'BatteryLifeDiagnosticTool.exe' or similar) in common installation paths such as 'C:\Program Files\Intel\Battery Life Diagnostic Tool\' or 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Battery Life Diagnostic Tool\'. Alternatively, search the Windows Registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for an entry containing 'Intel Battery Life Diagnostic Tool'.
    Affected if The tool is found installed on the system.
  2. Identify the installation directory
    Locate the installation folder by right-clicking the executable in Task Manager (if running), checking the shortcut properties, or examining the registry uninstall entry found in the previous step. Note the full path to the installation directory.
    Affected if An installation directory path is identified.
  3. Examine file and folder permissions on the installation directory
    Right-click the installation folder, go to Properties > Security tab, and review the permissions. Specifically check what permissions are granted to Users or Authenticated Users groups. Look for Write, Modify, or Full Control permissions granted to non-administrative user accounts.
    Affected if Users or Authenticated Users have Write, Modify, or Full Control permissions on the installation directory or its executable files.
  4. Check for weak ACLs on executable files
    Within the installation folder, examine the permissions on each .exe and .dll file. Use 'icacls <filename>' from an elevated command prompt or check the Effective Access tab in the file Properties to determine what permissions standard users have.
    Affected if Standard (non-privileged) users have Write or Modify permissions on any executable (.exe) or dynamic-link library (.dll) files in the installation directory.
  5. Confirm the tool runs with elevated privileges
    Run the Intel Battery Life Diagnostic Tool and observe its process properties in Task Manager. Check if the process runs under a privileged account (such as SYSTEM, LocalSystem, or an administrator account) or if it has 'Run as administrator' enabled.
    Affected if The diagnostic tool executes with elevated privileges while the installation directory is writable by unprivileged users.

A user is affected if the Intel Battery Life Diagnostic Tool is installed and its installation directory or executables grant Write or Modify permissions to non-privileged users, allowing potential privilege escalation.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply vendor-provided patch when available; otherwise, restrict or remove the Intel Battery Life Diagnostic Tool until a fix is deployed, or remediate the incorrect file/registry permissions that enable privilege escalation.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $2,000
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-31655 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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