Security Resilience

CVE-2023-43517

Memory Safety in Qualcomm Qam8255P Firmware

Published
06 February 2024
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 8.4
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.00097 0.7th percentile
Risk Priority 58 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-43517 is a high-severity Improper Access Control (CWE-284) vulnerability in Qualcomm Qam8255P Firmware. Its CVSS base score is 8.4 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Security Account Manager (T1003.002); ranked at the 0.7th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and AC-4 (Information Flow Enforcement) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Memory corruption in Automotive Multimedia due to improper access control in HAB.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1003.002 Security Account Manager Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to extract credential material from the Security Account Manager (SAM) database either through in-memory techniques or through the Windows Registry where the SAM database is stored.
T1003.004 LSA Secrets Credential Access
Adversaries with SYSTEM access to a host may attempt to access Local Security Authority (LSA) secrets, which can contain a variety of different credential materials, such as credentials for service accounts.
T1003.008 /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to dump the contents of <code>/etc/passwd</code> and <code>/etc/shadow</code> to enable offline password cracking.
T1006 Direct Volume Access Stealth
Adversaries may directly access a volume to bypass file access controls and file system monitoring.
T1007 System Service Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may try to gather information about registered local system services.
T1012 Query Registry Discovery
Adversaries may interact with the Windows Registry to gather information about the system, configuration, and installed software.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-21425Same product: Qualcomm Qam8255P
CVE-2023-21642Same product: Qualcomm Qam8295P
CVE-2024-23351Same product: Qualcomm Qam8255P
CVE-2023-21673Same product: Qualcomm Qam8255P
CVE-2024-33027Same product: Qualcomm Qca6574Au
CVE-2024-23360Same vendor: Qualcomm
CVE-2023-24844Same vendor: Qualcomm
CVE-2025-23329Shared CWE-284, CWE-787
CVE-2023-21670Same product: Qualcomm Qam8255P
CVE-2023-33071Same product: Qualcomm Qca6574Au

Affected Assets

qualcomm
qam8255p firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qam8295p firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qam8650p firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qam8775p firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qamsrv1h firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qamsrv1m firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qca6574au firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qca6595 firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qca6696 firmware
all versions
qualcomm
qca6698aq firmware
all versions
+9 more product configuration(s) — see NVD for full list

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Directly enforces approved authorizations for logical access, stopping unauthorized actors from reaching resources.

Enforces flow-control policies that restrict information movement between subjects and objects.

Documents duties and assigns access so that no single account can bypass intended restrictions.

Limits each account to the minimum privileges needed, reducing the chance of unauthorized access.

Developer testing and evaluation (including fuzzing and bounds checks) finds out-of-bounds write flaws before deployment.

Defines account types, assigns/removes access, and reviews accounts to ensure only authorized actors can reach resources.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

ID.RA-01 partial match
blocks

Vulnerability scanning and recording can discover out-of-bounds write flaws so they can be remediated.

PR.PS-02 partial match
blocks

Patching or replacing vulnerable software directly eliminates known instances of this coding weakness.

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

Secure-development practices (static analysis, bounds checking, code review) are the primary means of preventing out-of-bounds writes.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

blocks

A.5.1 only requires that an information security policy and topic-specific policies (including on access control) exist and are reviewed; it does not itself enforce, implement or act on any access restriction, so the weakness can still be exploited (per the owner's explicit rule that governance/dependency clauses score none on effect verbs).

removes
blocks

A.5.15 directly mandates determining requirements, defining/implementing topic-specific access control policy+rules (with explicit references to 8.3, 5.16, 5.18), and enforcing authorized access while preventing unauthorized access, which squarely stops exploitation of most CWE-284 instances; the bounded remainder is the physical slice (explicitly delegated to 7.2-7.4) plus any second-order defects like path traversal that are not authorization decisions.

blocks

A.5.16's identity lifecycle (unique binding, timely disable/remove, no duplicates, oversight of shared/non-human) directly stops most improper access by ensuring the actor in an access decision is correctly identified and authorized; the bounded remainder is non-identity mechanisms in CWE-284 such as path traversal or CSRF that do not turn on actor identity at all.

blocks

A.5.18 directly governs the provisioning, review, adjustment and timely revocation of both physical and logical access rights per business rules, segregation of duties and risk-evaluated changes/terminations; this stops most unauthorized-actor exploitation paths named by CWE-284, with a bounded remainder (e.g. path-traversal or CSRF cases that are not authorization decisions at all)

Hardening callouts derived

DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.

  • No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-284, a pillar-level weakness. Rules are authored against its narrower children: CWE-749, CWE-1220.

References