CVE-2025-27060: Qualcomm Immersive Home Buffer Overflow

CVE-2025-27060 Overview

CVE-2025-27060 is a memory corruption vulnerability in Qualcomm firmware affecting multiple Immersive Home platforms, IPQ networking SoCs, and QCN wireless chipsets. The flaw occurs when the firmware processes a Secure Channel Manager (SCM) call containing malformed inputs. A local authenticated attacker with low privileges can trigger the condition to corrupt memory across a security boundary. The weakness maps to [CWE-822: Untrusted Pointer Dereference]. Qualcomm published the fix in the Qualcomm Security Bulletin October 2025.

Critical Impact
Successful exploitation can lead to memory corruption in a privileged execution context, enabling code execution or full compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability on affected Qualcomm platforms.

Affected Products

Qualcomm Immersive Home 214, 216, 316, and 318 Platform firmware
Qualcomm IPQ5010 and IPQ5028 networking SoC firmware
Qualcomm QCN6023/6024/6100/6102/6112/6122/6132 and QCN9000-series (9000–9024, 9070–9074, 9100, 9274) wireless chipset firmware

Discovery Timeline

2025-10-09 - CVE-2025-27060 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-27060

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability resides in the Secure Channel Manager (SCM) call interface used by Qualcomm firmware to transition from the non-secure world into the secure world on ARM TrustZone-enabled SoCs. When the firmware handler receives an SCM request, it does not adequately validate pointer values or structural parameters supplied by the caller. A local caller can pass malformed inputs that cause the handler to dereference untrusted pointers, resulting in memory corruption. Because the SCM handler runs at a higher privilege than the caller, the impact crosses a trust boundary, which explains the scope change reflected in the vector. Exploitation requires only low-privilege local access and no user interaction.

Root Cause

The root cause is untrusted pointer dereference in the SCM call path, tracked under [CWE-822]. The handler treats caller-supplied pointer or length fields as authoritative without validating that they reference memory the caller is permitted to influence. Malformed inputs cause the secure-side code to read from or write to attacker-influenced addresses.

Attack Vector

An attacker with local, low-privileged code execution on an affected device issues an SCM call with crafted parameters. The malformed structure triggers the pointer dereference inside the secure component, corrupting memory in a more privileged context. On wireless and networking SoCs, this local vector may be reachable from any process able to invoke SCM services, including compromised drivers or service processes. No verified public proof-of-concept exists at this time; readers should consult the Qualcomm Security Bulletin October 2025 for component-level details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-27060

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected crashes, watchdog resets, or panic logs originating from the SCM or TrustZone handler on affected Qualcomm devices.
Kernel or driver log entries referencing failed or malformed qcom_scm_call invocations preceding a reboot.
Unexplained device reboots or firmware assertion messages on Immersive Home, IPQ, and QCN platforms.

Detection Strategies

Inventory devices against the affected product list and correlate firmware versions with the fixed builds referenced in the Qualcomm October 2025 bulletin.
Monitor system logs from access points, gateways, and IoT devices for repeated SCM-related faults, which may indicate exploitation attempts.
Enable device telemetry forwarding to a centralized log store to retain crash traces that would otherwise be lost on reboot.

Monitoring Recommendations

Forward syslog, kernel, and firmware crash telemetry from Qualcomm-based network devices to a SIEM or data lake for retention and correlation.
Baseline normal SCM call patterns from trusted drivers, then alert on anomalous frequency or unexpected callers.
Track vendor advisories for updated firmware images and validate deployed versions against the fixed release notes.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-27060

Immediate Actions Required

Apply the firmware updates referenced in the Qualcomm Security Bulletin October 2025 as soon as OEM builds become available.
Contact device OEMs (router, access point, and IoT vendors) that integrate the affected chipsets to obtain patched firmware images.
Restrict local code execution on affected devices by removing unused services and enforcing least privilege for on-device processes.

Patch Information

Qualcomm addressed CVE-2025-27060 in the October 2025 security bulletin. Patched firmware is distributed through OEM channels; downstream vendors must integrate the Qualcomm fix into their device firmware releases. Verify installed firmware versions against the specific build identifiers published in the bulletin for each affected component.

Workarounds

No official workaround is provided by Qualcomm; firmware update is the supported remediation.
Reduce local attack surface by disabling remote management services, removing unnecessary user accounts, and hardening SSH or web administrative access on affected devices.
Segment vulnerable devices into isolated management VLANs until patched firmware is deployed.

bash

# Verify firmware version on an affected device (example, adapt to your platform)
cat /etc/os-release
cat /proc/device-tree/model
dmesg | grep -i scm