CVE-2025-47356: Race Condition Vulnerability Disclosed

CVE-2025-47356 Overview

CVE-2025-47356 is a memory corruption vulnerability that occurs when multiple threads concurrently access and modify shared resources. This race condition leads to a Double Free (CWE-415) vulnerability, where memory is freed more than once, potentially allowing attackers to corrupt heap metadata and gain control over program execution.

Critical Impact

This Double Free vulnerability enables local attackers with low privileges to achieve high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability of affected systems.

Affected Products

• Qualcomm chipsets (refer to Qualcomm January 2026 Security Bulletin for specific affected products)

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-01-07 - CVE-2025-47356 published to NVD
• 2026-01-08 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-47356

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified as a Double Free (CWE-415) memory corruption issue stemming from improper handling of concurrent thread access to shared resources. When multiple threads simultaneously attempt to free the same memory allocation, the heap management structures become corrupted, leading to undefined behavior that can be exploited for code execution or denial of service.

The local attack vector requires the attacker to have some level of access to the affected system. Once local access is established, exploitation does not require user interaction, making it suitable for privilege escalation attacks. The vulnerability affects the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the system with high impact across all three security properties.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2025-47356 lies in insufficient synchronization mechanisms when handling shared memory resources across multiple threads. Without proper locking or atomic operations, race conditions occur during memory deallocation, resulting in the same memory being freed multiple times. This Double Free condition corrupts the heap allocator's internal data structures.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is local, meaning an attacker must first gain some level of access to the target system. Once local access is achieved, the attacker can trigger the race condition by manipulating thread scheduling or timing to cause concurrent memory operations. The low attack complexity and no user interaction requirement make this vulnerability relatively straightforward to exploit once local access is established.

Successful exploitation typically involves:

1. Triggering the race condition between multiple threads
2. Corrupting heap metadata through the Double Free
3. Manipulating the corrupted heap to gain arbitrary write or code execution capabilities
4. Escalating privileges or achieving persistent access to the system

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-47356

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected application crashes or segmentation faults related to heap corruption
• Anomalous memory allocation patterns in system logs
• Evidence of exploitation attempts targeting memory management functions
• Unusual process behavior indicative of privilege escalation attempts

Detection Strategies

• Deploy memory corruption detection tools such as AddressSanitizer (ASan) during development and testing phases
• Implement runtime heap integrity monitoring to detect Double Free conditions
• Monitor for abnormal thread behavior and synchronization anomalies
• Use endpoint detection solutions capable of identifying memory exploitation techniques

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed logging for memory allocation and deallocation events in critical applications
• Configure alerts for application crashes with heap-related error signatures
• Implement process behavior monitoring to detect post-exploitation activity
• Review system logs for patterns consistent with local privilege escalation attempts

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-47356

Immediate Actions Required

• Review the Qualcomm January 2026 Security Bulletin for applicable patches
• Apply firmware and software updates as soon as they become available from Qualcomm
• Limit local access to affected systems to reduce the attack surface
• Implement application-level monitoring to detect exploitation attempts

Patch Information

Qualcomm has addressed this vulnerability in their January 2026 Security Bulletin. Organizations should consult the Qualcomm January 2026 Security Bulletin for specific patch versions and update instructions for affected products.

Workarounds

• Restrict local access to affected systems to trusted users only until patches are applied
• Implement enhanced monitoring and logging on affected devices
• Consider isolating affected systems from sensitive network segments
• Apply principle of least privilege to limit the impact of potential exploitation