CVE-2025-27055: Qualcomm Aqt1000 Buffer Overflow Flaw

CVE-2025-27055 Overview

CVE-2025-27055 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Qualcomm firmware affecting a wide range of Snapdragon-based chipsets, connectivity modules, and audio codecs. The flaw occurs during the image encoding process and is tracked under CWE-126 (Buffer Over-read) and CWE-125 (Out-of-Bounds Read). An authenticated local attacker can trigger the condition to corrupt memory and compromise confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Qualcomm addressed the issue in the Qualcomm Security Bulletin July 2025.

Critical Impact
Successful exploitation can lead to arbitrary code execution or privilege escalation in the firmware image-encoding path across dozens of Qualcomm platforms shipped in mobile, compute, and video collaboration devices.

Affected Products

Qualcomm FastConnect 6200, 6700, 6800, 6900, and 7800 connectivity subsystem firmware
Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c, 7c Gen 2, and 7c+ Gen 3 Compute platforms; QCM/QCS 5430 and 6490 platforms; SC8180X, SC8280XP, SC8380XP, and SM6250 SoCs
Qualcomm WCD9340/9341/9370/9375/9380/9385 audio codecs, WSA8810/8815/8830/8835/8840/8845/8845H speaker amplifiers, AQT1000, QCA6391/6420/6430, and Video Collaboration VC3 Platform firmware

Discovery Timeline

2025-07-08 - CVE-2025-27055 published to the National Vulnerability Database
2025-07 - Qualcomm publishes the July 2025 Security Bulletin containing the fix
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-27055

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability resides in the image encoding routine within affected Qualcomm firmware components. The code reads image data beyond the intended buffer boundary, producing an out-of-bounds read that corrupts adjacent memory structures. Because the encoding path processes attacker-controllable image parameters or pixel data, malformed input can influence loop bounds or pointer arithmetic used during encoding. The resulting memory corruption can be steered to overwrite state used by higher-privileged firmware components. Given the broad chipset footprint, the same defect propagates across mobile handsets, compute platforms, connectivity modules, and audio subsystems.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper validation of buffer boundaries during image encoding, classified under CWE-126 (Buffer Over-read) and CWE-125 (Out-of-Bounds Read). The encoder does not sufficiently verify size or offset parameters against the allocated buffer, allowing reads past the buffer terminator. In firmware contexts, adjacent memory frequently contains function pointers, control structures, or session state, making corruption exploitable rather than merely disclosing data.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires local access with low privileges and no user interaction. An attacker with the ability to invoke the affected encoder — for example, through a userspace client that submits crafted image buffers to the firmware — can trigger the out-of-bounds read. Successful exploitation yields high impact to confidentiality, integrity, and availability within the firmware execution context, which typically operates at a higher privilege level than the calling application.

No public proof-of-concept exploit is available, and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. See the Qualcomm Security Bulletin July 2025 for authoritative technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-27055

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected crashes, kernel panics, or watchdog resets originating from image-processing services or DSP subsystems on Qualcomm-based devices
Anomalous logs from the multimedia or camera HAL referencing encoder faults, segmentation faults, or memory abort exceptions
Local processes invoking image encoding APIs at unusual frequency or with malformed parameters

Detection Strategies

Inventory endpoints, mobile devices, and IoT hardware to identify firmware versions listed in the July 2025 Qualcomm bulletin
Correlate device telemetry with vendor OTA patch levels to flag systems still running vulnerable firmware
Monitor for userspace processes making repeated calls into image encoding libraries with attacker-influenced inputs

Monitoring Recommendations

Collect and centralize crash dumps and dmesg logs from Snapdragon-based devices to identify encoder-related faults
Track OEM security patch level (SPL) values across the fleet to confirm remediation status
Alert on new local processes attempting to interact with camera, media, or audio codec interfaces outside expected application baselines

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-27055

Immediate Actions Required

Apply the vendor firmware updates referenced in the Qualcomm Security Bulletin July 2025 as delivered by device OEMs
Enforce OEM security patch levels dated July 2025 or later through mobile device management (MDM) compliance policies
Restrict installation of untrusted third-party applications that could invoke the affected encoding paths

Patch Information

Qualcomm released fixes in the July 2025 Security Bulletin. OEMs integrate these patches into device-specific firmware and Android security patch levels. Administrators should validate that fleet devices report the July 2025 SPL or a later patch level and confirm that connectivity modules, compute platforms, and audio codec firmware have been updated where the vendor ships separate images.

Workarounds

No official workaround exists; vendor firmware update is the only complete remediation
Limit local access to affected devices and enforce least-privilege application permissions to reduce the attack surface
Disable or sandbox third-party applications that use image encoding APIs on devices awaiting OEM patch delivery

bash

# Verify Android security patch level on affected devices
adb shell getprop ro.build.version.security_patch
# Expected output: 2025-07-01 or later