Aug 07, 2019 14:00:00

A vulnerability that can hijack a Snapdragon smartphone via Wi-Fi is discovered

The

Snapdragon series of mobile SoCs produced by Qualcomm is used in many mobile devices, mainly Android smartphones, due to its high processing performance and low power consumption. With such Snapdragon, it will be possible to almost completely take over the smartphone via Wi-Fi Vulnerable ( Luxury ) It became clear that sex was found.

QualPwn-Exploiting Qualcomm WLAN and Modem Over The Air
https://blade.tencent.com/en/advisories/qualpwn/

New Flaws in Qualcomm Chips Expose Millions of Android Devices to Hacking
https://thehackernews.com/2019/08/android-qualcomm-vulnerability.html

QualPwn vulnerabilities in Qualcomm chips let hackers compromise Android devices | ZDNet
https://www.zdnet.com/article/qualpwn-vulnerabilities-in-qualcomm-chips-let-hackers-compromise-android-devices/

On August 1, 2019, Blade Team, a security team owned by China's leading IT company, Tencent, announced that it has discovered a vulnerability that allows it to attack Qualcomm chipsets wirelessly.

QualPwn is roughly divided into three vulnerabilities. The first vulnerability is a buffer overflow that exists on Qualcomm's

WLAN firmware. This allows the second and third vulnerabilities to be able to infiltrate the modem and Linux kernel installed in Snapdragon.

Since Android is based on the Linux kernel and the kernel is the core part of the OS, by exploiting QualPwn, attackers can install rootkits and extract personal information without touching one smartphone Will be possible.

Fortunately, since it is not possible to perform a complete remote attack, it is said that similar hacking can not be done via the Internet, but intrusion via Wi-Fi network is possible, so it is installed in convenience stores and cafes, for example It is quite possible that free Wi-Fi access points are used for attacks.

by isuru prabath

In response to the report that QualPwn was discovered, Google conducted a security update on August 5, 2019, and patches have already been released for the Pixel series and Nexus series manufactured and sold by Google.

Also, the Blade Team confirmed the vulnerability only on Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 with Snapdragon 835 and 845 installed, but according to Qualcomm's security information , Snapdragon, the latest flagship model at the time of article creation Nearly 50 Qualcomm chipsets, including the 855, have been found to be affected, suggesting a huge number of smartphones with similar vulnerabilities.

At the time of writing the article, there was no evidence of exploit code exploiting this vulnerability, and there was no report that damage had occurred.