CVE-2025-21460 in Snapdragon Auto
Summary
by MITRE • 05/06/2025
Memory corruption while processing a message, when the buffer is controlled by a Guest VM, the value can be changed continuously.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/06/2025
This vulnerability represents a critical memory corruption issue that emerges during message processing within virtualized environments where guest virtual machines control buffer contents. The flaw occurs when a guest vm has direct influence over buffer allocation and manipulation, creating conditions where malicious or unintended modifications can continuously alter buffer values. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation and sanitization of guest-controlled data before it is processed by the hypervisor's message handling mechanisms, potentially allowing attackers to manipulate memory structures through repeated buffer modifications. The continuous nature of value changes suggests that the vulnerability may be exploitable through iterative modification attacks that gradually corrupt memory regions. This type of vulnerability falls under the category of hypervisor escape conditions where guest privileges can be leveraged to compromise the host system's memory integrity. The technical implementation likely involves improper bounds checking, inadequate input validation, or flawed memory management routines that fail to account for guest-controlled buffer parameters. Such memory corruption vulnerabilities are particularly dangerous in virtualized environments because they can provide attackers with pathways to elevate privileges beyond the guest boundary, potentially leading to complete system compromise. The vulnerability's exploitation requires guest vm access and demonstrates a fundamental flaw in the isolation mechanisms between virtual machines and the underlying hypervisor infrastructure.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple memory corruption to encompass potential privilege escalation and system stability breaches. Attackers with access to a guest vm could theoretically craft sequences of buffer modifications that progressively corrupt memory regions, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution within the host system. The continuous modification capability suggests that exploitation might involve iterative techniques where attackers repeatedly adjust buffer values to achieve desired memory corruption outcomes. This vulnerability represents a significant threat to cloud computing environments and virtualized infrastructures where multiple tenants share the same physical hardware. The implications for security posture are severe as it undermines the fundamental isolation principles that virtualization relies upon, allowing for potential data leakage, service disruption, and unauthorized access to other virtual machines or the host system itself. The vulnerability's impact is particularly concerning in multi-tenant environments where the compromise of one vm could potentially affect the entire physical host and other virtual machines running on the same infrastructure.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability must address both the immediate technical flaw and broader security architecture considerations. Organizations should implement strict buffer validation mechanisms that prevent guest-controlled data from directly influencing critical memory structures within the hypervisor. The recommended approach involves deploying enhanced input sanitization routines, implementing robust bounds checking, and establishing clear separation between guest-accessible memory regions and critical hypervisor memory areas. Additionally, hypervisor vendors should consider implementing memory access controls that limit the ability of guest vm to manipulate memory regions that could lead to privilege escalation. Security controls should include runtime monitoring for suspicious buffer modification patterns, enhanced hypervisor isolation mechanisms, and regular security audits of memory management routines. The vulnerability aligns with common weakness enumerations such as CWE-121, which addresses stack buffer overflow conditions, and CWE-122, which covers heap buffer overflow scenarios. From an attack framework perspective, this vulnerability would be categorized under ATT&CK technique T1055 for process injection and potentially T1072 for software deployment. Organizations should also consider implementing virtualization security modules, hypervisor hardening, and regular patch management procedures to address similar vulnerabilities in the broader virtualization ecosystem. The remediation process requires careful attention to hypervisor updates, memory management code reviews, and comprehensive testing of virtualization security controls to prevent exploitation of such memory corruption vulnerabilities.