CVE-2020-11271 in Snapdragon Auto
Summary
by MITRE • 02/22/2021
Possible out of bounds while accessing global control elements due to race condition in Snapdragon Auto, Snapdragon Compute, Snapdragon Connectivity, Snapdragon Consumer IOT, Snapdragon Industrial IOT, Snapdragon Mobile, Snapdragon Voice & Music, Snapdragon Wearables, Snapdragon Wired Infrastructure and Networking
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/04/2021
This vulnerability represents a critical race condition affecting multiple Snapdragon product lines including automotive, mobile, and IoT devices. The flaw manifests as a potential out-of-bounds memory access when handling global control elements, creating a scenario where concurrent threads or processes can access memory locations beyond their allocated boundaries. The vulnerability stems from insufficient synchronization mechanisms during access to shared global control structures, allowing for unpredictable memory corruption patterns that could be exploited by malicious actors.
The technical implementation of this race condition occurs within the kernel-level memory management subsystem where multiple execution contexts attempt to modify shared global control elements simultaneously. When threads access these control elements without proper mutual exclusion mechanisms, the timing of execution can result in one thread reading from or writing to memory locations that have been modified or deallocated by another thread. This creates a classic race condition scenario that falls under CWE-362, which specifically addresses race conditions in concurrent programming. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it affects multiple Snapdragon product categories, indicating a fundamental flaw in the underlying software architecture rather than an isolated component issue.
The operational impact of this vulnerability spans across various device types and use cases, from automotive infotainment systems to mobile devices and industrial IoT deployments. Attackers could potentially exploit this race condition to execute arbitrary code, escalate privileges, or cause system instability and crashes. In automotive applications, this could compromise vehicle safety systems or infotainment functionality, while in mobile devices it might allow for persistent backdoor access or data exfiltration. The distributed nature of the vulnerability across multiple product lines suggests that exploitation techniques could be generalized across different device types, increasing the attack surface significantly. According to ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability maps to T1068 for local privilege escalation and T1499 for endpoint denial of service.
Mitigation strategies should focus on implementing proper synchronization mechanisms including mutex locks, semaphores, or atomic operations to prevent concurrent access to shared global control elements. Device manufacturers should conduct thorough code reviews and implement comprehensive testing procedures including stress testing with concurrent thread execution to identify similar race conditions. Updates should include kernel patches that enforce proper locking mechanisms and memory access controls. Additionally, implementing memory safety features such as stack canaries, address space layout randomization, and control flow integrity checks can provide additional layers of protection. The vulnerability highlights the importance of adhering to secure coding practices and following established security guidelines for concurrent programming as outlined in the CERT Secure Coding Standards. Regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in other shared memory access patterns throughout the system architecture.