Security News > 2020 > August > Vulnerabilities in Qualcomm Chips Expose Billions of Devices to Attacks
Security researchers have identified hundreds of vulnerabilities that expose devices with Qualcomm Snapdragon chips to attacks.
The proprietary subsystem is licensed for programming to OEMs and a small number of application developers, and the code running on DSP is signed, but the security researchers have identified ways to bypass Qualcomm's signature and run code on DSP. Vendors can build software for DSP using the Hexagon SDK, and serious security flaws in the development kit itself have resulted in hundreds of vulnerabilities being introduced in code from Qualcomm and partner vendors.
According to Makkaveev, almost all of the DSP executable libraries that come embedded in Qualcomm-based smartphones are exposed to attacks through the issues identified in the Hexagon SDK. The discovered flaws, over 400 in total, are tracked as CVE-2020-11201, CVE-2020-11202, CVE-2020-11206, CVE-2020-11207, CVE-2020-11208 and CVE-2020-11209 and have already been acknowledged by Qualcomm.
With Qualcomm's chips present in approximately 40% of the smartphones out there, including high-end devices from Google, LG, OnePlus, Samsung, Xiaomi, and others, at least 1 billion mobile users are affected by these vulnerabilities.
"Providing technologies that support robust security and privacy is a priority for Qualcomm. Regarding the Qualcomm Compute DSP vulnerability disclosed by Check Point, we worked diligently to validate the issue and make appropriate mitigations available to OEMs. We have no evidence it is currently being exploited. We encourage end users to update their devices as patches become available and to only install applications from trusted locations such as the Google Play Store," a Qualcomm spokesperson told SecurityWeek.
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Related Vulnerability
| DATE | CVE | VULNERABILITY TITLE | RISK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-11-12 | CVE-2020-11201 | Improper Input Validation vulnerability in Qualcomm products Arbitrary access to DSP memory due to improper check in loaded library for data received from CPU side' in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon Mobile in QCM6125, QCS410, QCS603, QCS605, QCS610, QCS6125, SA6145P, SA6155, SA6155P, SA8155, SA8155P, SDA640, SDA845, SDM640, SDM830, SDM845, SDX50M, SDX55, SDX55M, SM6125, SM6150, SM6250, SM6250P, SM7125, SM7150, SM7150P, SM8150, SM8150P | 7.2 |
| 2020-11-12 | CVE-2020-11202 | Out-of-bounds Write vulnerability in Qualcomm products Buffer overflow/underflow occurs when typecasting the buffer passed by CPU internally in the library which is not aligned with the actual size of the structure' in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon Mobile in QCM6125, QCS410, QCS603, QCS605, QCS610, QCS6125, SA6145P, SA6155, SA6155P, SA8155, SA8155P, SDA640, SDA670, SDA845, SDM640, SDM670, SDM710, SDM830, SDM845, SDX50M, SDX55, SDX55M, SM6125, SM6150, SM6150P, SM6250, SM6250P, SM7125, SM7150, SM7150P, SM8150, SM8150P | 7.2 |
| 2020-11-12 | CVE-2020-11206 | Unspecified vulnerability in Qualcomm products Possible buffer overflow in Fastrpc while handling received parameters due to lack of validation on input parameters' in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon Mobile in APQ8098, MSM8998, QCM4290, QCM6125, QCS410, QCS4290, QCS610, QCS6125, QSM8250, QSM8350, SA6145P, SA6150P, SA6155, SA6155P, SA8150P, SA8155, SA8155P, SA8195P, SC7180, SDA640, SDA660, SDA845, SDA855, SDM640, SDM660, SDM830, SDM845, SDM850, SDX50M, SDX55, SDX55M, SM4250, SM4250P, SM6115, SM6115P, SM6125, SM6150, SM6150P, SM6250, SM6250P, SM6350, SM7125, SM7150, SM7150P, SM7225, SM7250, SM7250P, SM8150, SM8150P, SM8250, SM8350, SM8350P, SXR2130, SXR2130P | 7.8 |
| 2020-11-12 | CVE-2020-11207 | Classic Buffer Overflow vulnerability in Qualcomm products Buffer overflow in LibFastCV library due to improper size checks with respect to buffer length' in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon Mobile in APQ8052, APQ8056, APQ8076, APQ8096, APQ8096SG, APQ8098, MDM9655, MSM8952, MSM8956, MSM8976, MSM8976SG, MSM8996, MSM8996SG, MSM8998, QCM4290, QCM6125, QCS410, QCS4290, QCS610, QCS6125, QSM8250, SA6145P, SA6150P, SA6155, SA6155P, SA8150P, SA8155, SA8155P, SA8195P, SC7180, SDA640, SDA660, SDA845, SDA855, SDM640, SDM660, SDM830, SDM845, SDM850, SDX50M, SDX55, SDX55M, SM4250, SM4250P, SM6115, SM6115P, SM6125, SM6150, SM6150P, SM6250, SM6250P, SM6350, SM7125, SM7150, SM7150P, SM7225, SM7250, SM7250P, SM8150, SM8150P, SM8250, SXR2130, SXR2130P | 7.8 |
| 2020-11-12 | CVE-2020-11208 | Integer Underflow (Wrap or Wraparound) vulnerability in Qualcomm products Out of Bound issue in DSP services while processing received arguments due to improper validation of length received as an argument' in SD820, SD821, SD820, QCS603, QCS605, SDA855, SA6155P, SA6145P, SA6155, SA6155P, SD855, SD 675, SD660, SD429, SD439 | 7.8 |
| 2020-11-12 | CVE-2020-11209 | Incorrect Authorization vulnerability in Qualcomm products Improper authorization in DSP process could allow unauthorized users to downgrade the library versions in SD820, SD821, SD820, QCS603, QCS605, SDA855, SA6155P, SA6145P, SA6155, SA6155P, SD855, SD 675, SD660, SD429, SD439 | 2.1 |