Security News > 2021 > May > Qualcomm Modem Chip Flaw Exploitable From Android: Researchers
Billions of Android devices are exposed to a vulnerability in Qualcomm's Mobile Station Modem chip.
A vulnerability in Qualcomm's Mobile Station Modem chip- installed in around 30% of the world's mobile devices - can be exploited from within Android.
MSM is managed within an Android device by the Qualcomm real-time OS, which is protected by the TrustZone.
The intent was to discover vulnerabilities that other researchers could use to examine the MSM chip.
"Even inspection of an older model of modem chips could still prove to be very valuable. Modem chips are complex, and contain hundreds of thousands of lines of code. Consequently, you can definitely expect vulnerabilities found on 2-3-year-old models to still exist today on newer models." Getting hold of an old, unpatched Android phone would not be difficult.
Good researchers will only be looking for the existence of vulnerabilities - bad researchers will be looking to exploit those vulnerabilities.