CVE-2018-3588 in Snapdragon Automobile
Summary
by MITRE
There is improper access control of the SSC and GPU mapped regions which lead to inject code from HLOS in Snapdragon Automobile, Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon Wear in version MDM9206, MDM9607, MDM9650, MSM8996AU, SD 210/SD 212/SD 205, SD 820, SD 820A, SD 835, SDA660.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/03/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-3588 represents a critical improper access control flaw affecting Qualcomm Snapdragon automotive and mobile platform systems. This weakness specifically targets the Secure Subsystem Controller (SSC) and Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) memory mappings, creating potential pathways for unauthorized code execution within the Host Linux Operating System (HLOS) environment. The vulnerability impacts multiple Snapdragon platform variants including MDM9206, MDM9607, MDM9650, MSM8996AU, SD 210/SD 212/SD 205, SD 820, SD 820A, SD 835, and SDA660, indicating a widespread exposure across Qualcomm's automotive and mobile processor portfolios. The flaw stems from inadequate memory protection mechanisms that fail to properly isolate secure and non-secure memory regions, allowing malicious actors to manipulate memory mappings and potentially execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves improper memory management within the Snapdragon platform's memory subsystem where the SSC and GPU mapped regions lack proper access controls. This misconfiguration allows unauthorized processes to access memory regions that should remain restricted to secure subsystems. The vulnerability's nature aligns with CWE-284 which describes improper access control, and specifically relates to improper enforcement of access permissions for memory regions. Attackers can exploit this weakness by leveraging the mapped memory regions to inject malicious code into the HLOS, effectively bypassing the normal security boundaries that should separate trusted secure components from untrusted user-space applications. The flaw essentially creates a memory corruption vulnerability where attackers can manipulate the memory layout to achieve privilege escalation and code injection.
The operational impact of CVE-2018-3588 extends beyond typical mobile security concerns given the automotive applications affected by this vulnerability. In automotive environments, this weakness could enable attackers to compromise vehicle systems, potentially affecting critical functions such as braking, steering, or entertainment systems. The vulnerability's exploitation could lead to complete system compromise, allowing attackers to gain persistent access to vehicle networks and potentially extract sensitive data or execute malicious commands. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques such as privilege escalation through memory corruption and code injection, with potential lateral movement capabilities within the automotive network. The attack surface includes both physical and network-based exploitation methods, with the potential for remote code execution in connected vehicle scenarios.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate firmware and software updates from Qualcomm to address the memory access control flaws. System administrators should implement memory protection mechanisms including kernel address space layout randomization and stack canaries to reduce exploitation success rates. Network segmentation and monitoring solutions should be deployed to detect anomalous memory access patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. Organizations should also consider implementing runtime application self-protection measures and regular security assessments of automotive systems. The vulnerability highlights the importance of secure memory management in automotive platforms and underscores the need for robust access control mechanisms that prevent unauthorized memory region access. Security teams must conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments across all affected Snapdragon platform variants to ensure complete remediation and prevent potential exploitation scenarios that could compromise vehicle safety and security systems.