CVE-2025-27059: Qualcomm Firmware Use-After-Free Flaw

CVE-2025-27059 Overview

CVE-2025-27059 is a memory corruption vulnerability affecting a broad set of Qualcomm firmware platforms, including Immersive Home 214/216/316/318, IPQ5010, IPQ5028, and multiple QCN6xxx and QCN9xxx networking chipsets. The flaw occurs while performing a Secure Channel Manager (SCM) call and is tracked under [CWE-823: Use of Out-of-range Pointer Offset]. An attacker with local, low-privileged access can trigger the condition without user interaction, resulting in high impact to confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Qualcomm addressed the issue in its October 2025 Security Bulletin.

Critical Impact
Local exploitation can corrupt memory during an SCM call and enable privilege escalation across a scope change, compromising the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of affected Qualcomm devices.

Affected Products

Qualcomm Immersive Home 214/216/316/318 Platform Firmware
Qualcomm IPQ5010 and IPQ5028 firmware
Qualcomm QCN6023/6024/6100/6102/6112/6122/6132 and QCN9000/9001/9002/9003/9012/9022/9024/9070/9072/9074/9100/9274 firmware

Discovery Timeline

2025-10-09 - CVE-2025-27059 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-27059

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2025-27059 is a memory corruption issue that arises when the affected Qualcomm firmware performs a Secure Channel Manager (SCM) call. SCM calls are used to transition execution between the non-secure (HLOS) and secure (TrustZone) worlds on Qualcomm platforms and typically pass pointers or buffers as arguments. The CWE-823 classification indicates that the flaw involves an out-of-range pointer offset, meaning input controlled by the caller influences a pointer used inside the SCM handling path without adequate bounds enforcement.

Because the vulnerability sits at the boundary between the non-secure and secure worlds, successful exploitation results in a scope change: code running with low privileges in the normal world can corrupt memory reachable by the secure world. This creates a viable path to privilege escalation, arbitrary code execution in a higher trust domain, or persistent compromise of firmware components in Wi-Fi and gateway SoCs.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper validation of pointer offsets used during SCM call processing. When user- or caller-supplied values are applied to a base pointer without correctly enforcing range checks, the resulting pointer can reference memory outside the intended buffer, producing an out-of-bounds read or write during secure-world dispatch.

Attack Vector

An attacker must have local access with low privileges on the affected device. No user interaction is required. The attacker issues a crafted SCM call from the non-secure world, supplying arguments that cause the vulnerable code path to dereference an out-of-range pointer and corrupt memory. Because the vulnerability crosses a trust boundary, the impact extends beyond the attacker's original privilege scope.

No public proof-of-concept or in-the-wild exploitation has been reported. The EPSS probability is 0.082%.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-27059

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected kernel panics, TrustZone resets, or firmware crash dumps referencing SCM call handlers on affected Qualcomm SoCs.
Anomalous invocation patterns of SCM syscalls from unprivileged processes or daemons that do not normally issue them.

Detection Strategies

Inventory devices against the Qualcomm CPE list for CVE-2025-27059 and correlate firmware build strings with the fixed versions in the October 2025 bulletin.
Monitor endpoint and IoT device telemetry for repeated crashes, watchdog resets, or kernel messages naming qcom_scm handlers.
Baseline SCM call issuers on Linux-based Qualcomm gateways and flag deviations from expected system services.

Monitoring Recommendations

Forward device syslog, dmesg, and crash telemetry to a centralized data lake for retention and correlation across the fleet.
Alert on repeated TrustZone or SCM-related errors from the same host, which can indicate exploitation attempts against pointer-offset handling.
Track firmware version drift so that unpatched Immersive Home, IPQ, and QCN devices are surfaced automatically.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-27059

Immediate Actions Required

Apply the Qualcomm firmware updates referenced in the October 2025 Security Bulletin to all affected Immersive Home, IPQ, and QCN platforms.
Restrict local access to affected devices by enforcing least-privilege accounts and removing unnecessary shell or debug interfaces.
Prioritize patching for internet-exposed gateway and Wi-Fi appliances built on the listed QCN and IPQ chipsets.

Patch Information

Qualcomm released fixes as part of the October 2025 Security Bulletin. OEMs and downstream vendors ship the updates in device-specific firmware images; consult the vendor for the appropriate build. Refer to the Qualcomm Security Bulletin October 2025 for the authoritative list of remediated components.

Workarounds

No vendor-supplied workaround is documented; firmware update is the required remediation.
Reduce exposure by limiting which local users and services can invoke device management interfaces on affected platforms.
Segment vulnerable Wi-Fi and gateway devices from sensitive networks until patched firmware is deployed.

bash

# Verify Qualcomm firmware build on Linux-based devices
cat /proc/device-tree/model 2>/dev/null
dmesg | grep -iE 'qcom_scm|tz|trustzone'
# Compare running firmware against the fixed build in the Qualcomm October 2025 bulletin