CVE-2025-59615: Qualcomm Fastconnect 6700 Use After Free

CVE-2025-59615 Overview

CVE-2025-59615 is a memory corruption vulnerability affecting a wide range of Qualcomm firmware components. The flaw occurs when device input/output control (IOCTL) operations map and unmap persistent memory buffers without proper synchronization. This race condition results in a use-after-free memory corruption ([CWE-416]) that a local, low-privileged attacker can trigger. Successful exploitation can compromise confidentiality, integrity, and availability on affected devices, including chipsets used in mobile, XR, audio, and connectivity platforms such as Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, FastConnect 7800, and multiple WCD, WCN, and WSA series components.

Critical Impact
A local attacker with low privileges can trigger memory corruption in kernel-adjacent firmware code, potentially leading to code execution or privilege escalation on affected Qualcomm-based devices.

Affected Products

Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile platforms including Snapdragon 460, 662, 8 Elite Gen 5, AR1 Gen 1, XR2 5G, and XR2+ Gen 1
Qualcomm FastConnect 6700, 6900, and 7800 connectivity firmware
Qualcomm WCD (9370–9395), WCN (3950–7881), and WSA (8810–8855C) audio and connectivity firmware, plus SXR, QXM, QMP, QPA, QLN, QCM, SC8380XP, SD865 5G, SM6850, SM8845P, XRV7209, XRV9209, Molokai, Orne, Pandeiro, and Video Collaboration VC3 Platform firmware

Discovery Timeline

2026-07-06 - CVE-2025-59615 published to the National Vulnerability Database
2026-07-07 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-59615

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability resides in the IOCTL handlers responsible for mapping and unmapping persistent memory buffers in affected Qualcomm firmware. When userspace processes issue concurrent IOCTL calls to map and unmap the same buffer, the handler fails to enforce proper synchronization. This creates a race window in which one thread frees or releases a buffer while another thread still holds or dereferences a reference to it.

The resulting condition is classified as a use-after-free ([CWE-416]). An attacker who wins the race can cause the kernel to operate on freed memory, corrupting kernel state or object metadata. Because the vulnerable IOCTL interfaces are exposed to local processes on the device, exploitation does not require network access or user interaction beyond executing code on the target.

Root Cause

The root cause is improper synchronization between the map and unmap paths for persistent memory buffers. Reference counting, locking, or atomic state transitions are insufficient to prevent one operation from releasing the buffer while another operation continues to access it. The absence of adequate mutual exclusion allows dangling pointers to persist after the buffer is freed.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires local access with low privileges on the affected device. The attacker opens the vulnerable device node and issues rapid, interleaved IOCTL requests to map and unmap a persistent memory buffer from multiple threads. By racing the free and access paths, the attacker triggers memory corruption. Skilled adversaries can shape the freed allocation to control kernel data structures, potentially escalating to arbitrary code execution in the firmware or driver context. Verified public exploit code is not currently available.

// No verified exploit code is publicly available for CVE-2025-59615.
// Refer to the Qualcomm July 2026 Security Bulletin for technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-59615

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected kernel panics, watchdog resets, or firmware crashes referencing memory allocator or IOCTL handling paths on affected Qualcomm chipsets
Unprivileged processes issuing high-frequency, interleaved IOCTL calls to device nodes associated with persistent memory buffer management
Anomalous privilege escalation events originating from processes that previously interacted with vulnerable driver interfaces

Detection Strategies

Monitor Android and embedded Linux kernel logs (dmesg, logcat) for use-after-free indicators such as KASAN reports, slab corruption warnings, or repeated IOCTL failures.
Baseline legitimate IOCTL usage patterns for Qualcomm audio, connectivity, and XR drivers, then alert on statistical outliers indicative of race-condition probing.
Correlate device firmware version telemetry against the Qualcomm July 2026 Security Bulletin to identify unpatched endpoints at risk.

Monitoring Recommendations

Collect and centralize mobile and IoT device telemetry, including kernel crash dumps and driver logs, for retrospective analysis.
Track post-crash process behavior to detect follow-on privilege escalation or persistence attempts after a suspected memory corruption event.
Maintain an inventory of affected Qualcomm chipsets in the environment and monitor OEM patch delivery status for each device class.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-59615

Immediate Actions Required

Identify all devices in the environment that use affected Qualcomm chipsets and firmware components listed in the July 2026 bulletin.
Apply the vendor-supplied firmware update as soon as the corresponding OEM or carrier releases the patched build for each device model.
Restrict installation of untrusted third-party applications, since local code execution is required to reach the vulnerable IOCTL interface.

Patch Information

Qualcomm addressed CVE-2025-59615 in the July 2026 security bulletin. Device OEMs and carriers integrate the fixed firmware into their monthly security patch level. Refer to the Qualcomm Security Bulletin July 2026 for the authoritative list of fixed components and version details.

Workarounds

No official workaround eliminates the underlying race condition; patching is the only complete remediation.
Reduce local attack surface by enforcing application allowlisting and disabling sideloading on affected devices.
Apply mobile device management (MDM) policies that require the latest vendor security patch level before granting access to sensitive corporate resources.

bash

# Example: verify the Android security patch level on an affected device
adb shell getprop ro.build.version.security_patch

# Example: enumerate device nodes exposed by Qualcomm drivers (for inventory only)
adb shell ls -l /dev | grep -Ei 'qcom|msm|adsp|wcnss'