CVE-2019-10547 in Snapdragon Auto
Summary
by MITRE
When issuing IOCTL calls to ION, Memory leak can occur due to failure in unassign pages under certain conditions in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Consumer Electronics Connectivity, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon Voice & Music, Snapdragon Wearables, Snapdragon Wired Infrastructure and Networking in APQ8009, APQ8053, APQ8096AU, APQ8098, IPQ8074, MDM9206, MDM9207C, MDM9607, MDM9640, MDM9650, MSM8909W, MSM8953, MSM8996AU, Nicobar, QCN7605, QCS605, Rennell, Saipan, SC8180X, SDA660, SDA845, SDM429, SDM429W, SDM439, SDM450, SDM632, SDM710, SDX24, SDX55, SM7150, SM8150, SM8250, SXR2130
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/17/2020
This vulnerability represents a critical memory management flaw in Qualcomm's Snapdragon automotive and consumer device platforms that affects multiple hardware variants across various product lines. The issue manifests as a memory leak during IOCTL (Input/Output Control) operations within the ION memory management subsystem, which is fundamental to how Android devices handle memory allocation for graphics, multimedia, and other system components. The vulnerability specifically occurs when the system fails to properly unassign pages under certain conditions, leading to progressive memory consumption that can eventually degrade system performance or cause unexpected device behavior.
The technical root cause lies in improper memory deallocation mechanisms within the ION driver implementation where memory pages allocated for specific operations are not correctly released back to the system when certain error conditions or operational paths are encountered. This memory leak pattern is particularly concerning because ION serves as a core memory management component that handles allocation for GPU buffers, camera data, multimedia processing, and other critical system functions. When pages fail to be unassigned, they remain occupied in the system memory pool, creating a gradual depletion of available memory resources that can accumulate over time or during sustained system usage.
The operational impact of this vulnerability spans across multiple device categories including automotive infotainment systems, mobile devices, industrial IoT applications, and networking equipment. In automotive environments, this could lead to system instability, reduced responsiveness, or even complete system lockups during extended operation periods. For consumer devices, the memory leak might manifest as gradual performance degradation, application crashes, or unexpected reboot cycles. The vulnerability affects a broad range of Qualcomm SoCs including the APQ8009, APQ8053, and various MDM series modems, indicating a systemic issue rather than a localized problem. The presence of multiple affected hardware variants suggests that this is a fundamental flaw in the memory management architecture that has been inherited across different product generations and use cases.
From a cybersecurity perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-401, which describes improper handling of memory allocation failures, and could potentially be exploited to cause denial of service conditions or create opportunities for privilege escalation attacks. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this as a resource exhaustion technique where adversaries could potentially leverage the memory leak to consume system resources and cause system instability. The vulnerability's widespread impact across different Snapdragon product lines and use cases makes it particularly dangerous as it affects both consumer and industrial deployments, with automotive applications being especially sensitive to memory management issues due to safety-critical operational requirements.
Mitigation strategies should focus on implementing proper memory management practices including regular monitoring of memory allocation patterns, implementing memory leak detection mechanisms, and applying firmware updates from Qualcomm that address the specific ION page unassignment failure conditions. System administrators should also consider implementing memory monitoring tools to detect abnormal memory consumption patterns that might indicate the presence of this vulnerability. The recommended approach includes both immediate firmware patches from Qualcomm and long-term architectural improvements to ensure proper memory deallocation under all operational conditions. Additionally, developers should review their applications for proper resource management practices and implement memory leak detection during development phases to prevent similar issues from occurring in custom applications running on these platforms.